Call for the Dead
First published 1961 · English · 156 pages
- Novels
- War
- Thriller and suspense
This was le Carré's first novel and introduced George Smiley. After a routine security interview, a British civil servant is found dead, apparently by his own hand, and Smiley, a quiet intelligence officer, feels something is wrong. His inquiries lead him through a trail of small clues, odd telephone calls and hidden loyalties. Short and tightly built, it blends a classic detective puzzle with the subdued, moral atmosphere of the Cold War. It sets out the character and concerns that would shape the author's later and more famous work.
Quotes
Why was London the only capital in the world that lost its personality at night? Smiley, as he pulled his coat more closely about him, could think of nowhere, from Los Angeles to Berne, which so readily gave up its daily struggle for identity.
Chic, that’s what he is—a barmaid’s dream of a real gentleman.
The State is a dream, too, a symbol of nothing at all, an emptiness, a mind without a body, a game played with clouds in the sky. But States make war, don’t they, and imprison people?
He knew how intelligent men could be broken by the stupidity of their superiors.