Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

The Russia House (Abridged)

By: John le Carré
Narrated by: John le Carré
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £19.99

Buy Now for £19.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Summary

John le Carré has earned worldwide acclaim with extraordinary spy novels, including The Russia House, an unequivocal classic.

It is the third summer of perestroika. Barley Blair, London publisher, receives a smuggled document from Moscow. Blair, jazz-loving, drink-marinated, dishevelled, is hardly to the taste of the spymasters, yet he has to be used - sent to the Soviet Union to make contact.

Katya, the Moscow intermediary, is beautiful, thoughtful, equally sceptical of all state ideology. Together, as the safe clichés of hostility disintegrate, they may represent the future - an idea that is anathema to the entrenched espionage professionals on both sides.

©1989 David Cornwell (P)2015 Hodder & Stoughton
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

A Small Town in Germany (BBC Radio 4 Drama) cover art
The Complete George Smiley Radio Dramas cover art
Triggers cover art
Something New cover art
Fear the Sky cover art
The Autumn Castle cover art
The Wolf's Hour cover art
With Every Letter cover art
The Bastard cover art
The First Casualty cover art
Dreadnaught cover art
Taken cover art
Into the Blue cover art
Debt of Bones cover art
The Empire's Corps cover art
Zoo Station cover art

Critic reviews

"Afire and thought-provoking.... A treatise on our times." ( Time)

What listeners say about The Russia House (Abridged)

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    1
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Not what I expected

I’m not certain what the issues are with the quality of the recording are here, but it ruined the story in my opinion. I usually love all the Le Carré books, but the poor recording quality, oddly timed fades and cuts between chapters dragged me back to reality every time. I’m not even certain if the ending was actually the ending it felt so odd. If I wasn’t driving I would have been looking at the recording convinced it had skipped a whole section.

However, the characters are always so clever and the world of spies so interesting that I couldn’t give it any lower.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!