John le Carré's classic novels deftly navigate readers through the intricate shadow worlds of international espionage with unsurpassed skill and knowledge, and have earned him -- and his hero, British secret Service Agent George Smiley -- unprecedented worldwide acclaim. George Smiley was simply doing a favor for Miss Ailsa Brimley, and old friend and editor of a small newspaper. Miss Brimley had received a letter from a worried reader: "I'm not mad. And I know my husbad is trying to kill me." But the letter had arrived too late: its scribe, the wife of an assistant master at the distinguished Carne School, was already dead. So George Smiley went to Carne to listen, ask questions, and think. And to uncover, layer by layer, the complex network of skeletons and hatreds that comprised that little English institution.
Marcel Duhamel Book order (chronological)





Le Grossium
- 256 pages
- 9 hours of reading
"Meet Gascoyne, a new breed of hero, a man who spends whole weeks in his car, eats there, sleeps there, and conducts his business - wielding power, pinching pennies, and fostering corruption - by mobile phone as he somehow manages to drive through bumper-to-bumper traffic at fifty miles an hour. But he's found a new preoccupation, hunting down the killer - last seen slithering away from the crime scene in a tree-sloth costume - of his business associate and finding out how the southern California megalopolis has suddenly slipped out of his grasp." A tour de force blending of genres - Alfred Hitchcock, jungle-war novels, science fiction, mad doctor movies, Westerns, James Bond, 18th-century mock epics, Greek tragedy and hardboiled detective stories - first published in 1966, Gascoyne is a hilarious look into a future that looks remarkably like the present.
The night manager
- 483 pages
- 17 hours of reading
At the start of it all, Jonathan Pine is merely the night manager at a luxury hotel. But when a single attempt to pass on information to the British authorities - about an international businessman at the hotel with suspicious dealings - backfires terribly, and people close to Pine begin to die, he commits himself to a battle against powerful forces he cannot begin to imagine. In a chilling tale of corrupt intelligence agencies, billion-dollar price tags and the truth of the brutal arms trade, John le Carre creates a claustrophobic world in which no one can be trusted. 'A marvellously observed relentless tale' Observer 'Complex and intense . . . page-turning tension' San Francisco Chronicle
Twelve Chinamen and a Woman
- 144 pages
- 6 hours of reading
Glorie Leadler's intense desire for love centers on a solitary Oriental man, igniting a passionate and tumultuous affair. Despite her allure attracting numerous suitors, it's this one connection that truly captivates her. When jealousy disrupts their romance, Glorie's emotional turmoil erupts into a fierce quest for vengeance, impacting the lives of many men in Florida. The story explores themes of love, jealousy, and the powerful consequences of unbridled passion.