John le Carre'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. Rounding off his astonishing vision of a clandestine world, master storyteller le Carre perfects his art in "Smiley's People." In London at dead of night, George Smiley, sometime acting Chief of the Circus (aka the British Secret Service), is summoned from his lonely bed by news of the murder of an ex-agent. Lured back to active service, Smiley skillfully maneuvers his people -- "the no-men of no-man's land" -- into crisscrossing Paris, London, Germany, and Switzerland as he prepares for his own final, inevitable duel on the Berlin border with his Soviet counterpart and archenemy, Karla.

約翰•勒卡雷

原名大衛•康威爾，1931年生於英國。18歲時，便被英國軍方情報單位招募，擔任對東柏林的間諜工作；退役後在牛津大學攻讀現代語言，之後於伊頓公學教授法文與德文。1959年，進入英國外交部工作，先後於英國駐波昂及漢堡的大使館服務，同時開始寫作。1963年，以第三本著作《冷戰諜魂》（The Spy who came in from the cold）一舉成名，被知名小說家葛林盛讚說︰「這是我讀過最好的間諜小說！」從此奠定其文壇大師地位。勒卡雷一生得獎無數，包括1965年美國推理作家協會的愛倫坡大獎、1964年獲得毛姆獎、英國Somerset Maugham獎、James Tait Black紀念獎等，1988年更獲頒CWA終身成就獎（另外分別在1963與1977年獲頒金匕首獎），以及義大利Malaparte Prize等等。至今已出版的19部作品，不僅受到全球各大媒體的矚目與讀者的歡迎，更因充滿戲劇元素與張力，已有11部被改編為電影與電視劇。