The Tailor of Panama

PRAISE FOR
THE TAILOR OF PANAMA

A major motion picture from Columbia Pictures
A
New York Times
Notable Book

“Riveting . . . le Carré has cut another masterpiece.”

—Los Angeles Times

“Entertaining. . . . A riotous, readable novel. . . . A worthy successor to Graham Greene's most wicked entertainments.”

—The New York Times

“Le Carré is a master of comic timing, colourful character, authentic voice . . . and we are inevitably caught in [his] spell. What the book also has . . . is a marvellous sense of place. Le Carré's evocation of Panama is rich in surreal detail and brilliantly rendered character; faced with such a barrage of style and skill, we willingly believe.”

—The Vancouver Sun

“Le Carré is at the top of his form in setting up this spy story about the creation—out of whole cloth, perhaps—of a spy story, a looking-glass world where the dupers and the duped are hard to tell apart. . . . Its artistry makes mere events seem ho-hum.”

—Time

“Be prepared for savage novelty . . . Le Carré's writerly skills are at work in
The Tailor of Panama
. The pace is nonstop, scenes are cleanly and economically written, and flashbacks are incorporated seamlessly into the narrative . . . the conclusion, which probably should not come as a surprise, resoundingly does.”

—Norman Rush,
The New York Times Book Review

“Le Carré shows what an extraordinarily witty writer he can be, with a true feeling for the farcical. . . . [He] is not found wanting
when the comedy turns dark, as it must. . . . Pendel assumes a dignity and a fortitude that turns him from buffoon to poignant hero, and makes him, in the end, a character quite as memorable as any le Carré has given us.”

—The Sunday Times

“This stands as one of his greatest novels.”

—
The Record
(Kitchener-Waterloo)

“Le Carré, at the height of his considerable powers, reveals with a wink and a smile the skull beneath the skin of a mad century.”

—
People

“In every angle of light, this is a wonderful book. It's as if le Carré had taken certain narrative strands from Graham Greene at his sunniest (
Our Man in Heaven
) and his darkest (
The Heart of the Matter
) and woven them expertly into a single riveting tale, populated by vividly rendered central characters and hilarious bit-players. . . .
The Tailor of Panama
is not just a brilliant spy novel. It's brilliant, period.”

—
The Globe and Mail

“An excoriating denunciation of hypocritical diplomacy, opportunistic high politics and exploitative journalism which explodes in an apocalyptic climax.”

—The Sunday Telegraph

“In this spicy tale of New Age spookery, rich in dialogue and serpentine manipulations, it is the Brits who are corrupt, with a cast of Panamanians skillfully drawn and painted with differing shades of sympathy. . . . Delightfully pointed and hilarious. . . . A well-crafted tale whose thread is studded with funny and moving episodes, as well as pointed asides.”

—The Guardian

“This marvelous farce of intelligence fabrication extends le Carré's range into comedy yet is streaked with tragic undertones of human imperfections.”

—
Daily Mail

“Vigorous and engaging, rich in the character of the locale, disturbing and funny at times. . . . The real action is something like beauty, unfolding not quite in but behind, the eye of the beholder.”

—
Boston Globe

“All the characters . . . are rendered with breathtaking accuracy; and the careening plot, by turns uproarious, cynical, and ultimately tragic, is brought off with seemingly effortless virtuosity. Le Carré remains far in front of his field, a startlingly up-to-date storyteller who writes as well about the shadows around the power elite as anyone alive.”

—
Publishers Weekly

“A hilariously funny, knowing, sardonic, and biting take on the politics of the new American imperial age. Nobody has written a better spy novel this year. Le Carré has just renewed his patent.”

—
Daily News

“A romantic delirium for troubled times.”

 —
The Observer

“There is no disputing the fact that John le Carré is one of the great masters of the spy novel. . . . [
The Tailor of Panama
] repays the reader on almost every page.”

—
Financial Post

“Pendel is an exaggeration of the pleaser hidden in all of us. And that's what makes reading this novel such a fascinating and unsettling experience. It is a glimpse less into post–Cold War intrigue than into the mysteries of the human heart.”

—
The Gazette

“Le Carré is on top form—rich, subtle, and powerfully imaginative.”

—
Maxim

“The tale is told with pace and verve and shows the author on top form.”

—
Yorkshire Post

“The idea of the invented self has been lurking in John le Carré's work for decades, surfacing predominantly in
A Perfect Spy
and now in this brilliantly multilayered account of a British tailor in Panama whose manufactured universe collides tragically with reality.”

—
Booklist

“It's a mordant pleasure to watch the structure collapse, along with the fate of nations, in exquisitely choreographed slow motion. Le Carré goes back to the spy story's roots —
Our Man in Havana
with a touch of Conrad's
Secret Agent
—to amuse frazzled millennialists with the refreshing news that we've all been here many times before.”

—
Kirkus Reviews

“Enchanting writing, perception, wit, characters that reach out of the pages and grab your heart, tensions which would explode with the prick of a pin. This is the le Carré that the macho gung-ho reviewers have kept secret from more sensitive souls for too long.”

—
Irish Independent

“A writer whose novels are both a literary event and a treat to be enjoyed by a vast discriminating public . . .”

—
Evening Standard

“Arguably his best book since
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
. A masterful portrayal of human weakness.”

—
The Times Literary Supplement

PENGUIN CANADA

THE TAILOR OF PANAMA

JOHN LE CARRÉ
was born in 1931. He was educated at the Universities of Bern and Oxford, taught at Eton College, and served as second secretary at the British Embassy in Bonn and British Consul in Hamburg during the Cold War. His third novel,
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
, secured him a wide reputation, which was consolidated by his trilogy
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; The Honourable Schoolboy;
and
Smiley's People.
His recent work includes
The Constant Gardener
and
The Mission Song.
His new novel,
A Most Wanted Man,
will be published in autumn 2008.

ALSO BY JOHN LE CARRÉ

Call for the Dead

A Murder of Quality

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

The Looking Glass War

A Small Town in Germany

The Naïve and Sentimental Lover

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

The Honourable Schoolboy

Smiley's People

The Little Drummer Girl

A Perfect Spy

The Secret Pilgrim

The Night Manager

Our Game

The Tailor of Panama

Single & Single

The Constant Gardener

Absolute Friends

The Mission Song

JOHN
LE CARRÉ

THE TAILOR
OF PANAMA

PENGUIN CANADA

Published by the Penguin Group

Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3

(a division of Pearson Canada Inc.)

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Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

First published in a Viking Canada hardcover by Penguin Group (Canada),

a division of Pearson Canada Inc., 1996.

Published in Penguin Canada paperback by Penguin Group (Canada),

a division of Pearson Canada Inc., 1997.

Published in this edition, 2008.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 (WEB)

Copyright © David Cornwell, 1996

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

Publisher's note: This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Manufactured in Canada.

LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION

Le Carré, John, 1931–

The tailor of Panama / John le Carré.

ISBN 978-0-14-316953-6

I. Title.

PR6062.E42T35 2008   823'.914   C2008-902724-8

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In memory of

Rainer Heumann,

literary agent, gentleman, and friend

“Quel Panama!”

Expression current
in France in the early years of this century:
describes an insoluble mess.

(See McCullough's admirable
The Path Between the Seas.
)