<story><title>John le Carré&apos;s &apos;The Spy Who Came in from the Cold&apos; is the ultimate spy novel</title><url>https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20230831-why-john-le-carrs-the-spy-who-came-in-from-the-cold-is-the-ultimate-spy-novel</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>nocoiner</author><text>Anyone have any recommendations for other classic spy novels like le Carre’s? I’ve read some Greene and Deighton, which were both mentioned in the article, so I suppose I should revisit those, but would be interested in any other works with a similar scene and setting.&lt;p&gt;One of my favorite le Carre tidbits - apparently in the UK and US versions of “Tinker, Tailor,” a character in one version takes a ferry in Hong Kong, but takes a tunnel in another version.&lt;p&gt;Apparently after the original UK release, one of the readers asked le Carre why the character didn’t just take the (relatively recently opened) tunnel between Kowloon and the mainland, le Carre went white in the face and promptly rewrote that part in the forthcoming US version for its subsequent release and had the character take the tunnel instead (as anyone would have done in those circumstances, given the two options).&lt;p&gt;Terrific writer and storyteller. Must have had a hell of a life.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>travisgriggs</author><text>I like all of his George Smiley novels. But perhaps the most haunting for me is The Looking Glass War (&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;The_Looking_Glass_War&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;The_Looking_Glass_War&lt;/a&gt;). I had just urned 50 when I read it and was actually surrounded by a lot of people ranging 60-80.&lt;p&gt;While a spy novel, it’s almost more of dark comic tragedy on the power of nostalgia. I easily find the storyline transferrable to some of the “established” organizations I’ve done work for.&lt;p&gt;Aging is hard. I wish there were Ben more books and stories like this one.</text></comment>
<story><title>John le Carré&apos;s &apos;The Spy Who Came in from the Cold&apos; is the ultimate spy novel</title><url>https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20230831-why-john-le-carrs-the-spy-who-came-in-from-the-cold-is-the-ultimate-spy-novel</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>nocoiner</author><text>Anyone have any recommendations for other classic spy novels like le Carre’s? I’ve read some Greene and Deighton, which were both mentioned in the article, so I suppose I should revisit those, but would be interested in any other works with a similar scene and setting.&lt;p&gt;One of my favorite le Carre tidbits - apparently in the UK and US versions of “Tinker, Tailor,” a character in one version takes a ferry in Hong Kong, but takes a tunnel in another version.&lt;p&gt;Apparently after the original UK release, one of the readers asked le Carre why the character didn’t just take the (relatively recently opened) tunnel between Kowloon and the mainland, le Carre went white in the face and promptly rewrote that part in the forthcoming US version for its subsequent release and had the character take the tunnel instead (as anyone would have done in those circumstances, given the two options).&lt;p&gt;Terrific writer and storyteller. Must have had a hell of a life.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jgalt212</author><text>Most Alan Furst novels are good.  They are largely the same, but the despite being cookie cutter, the cookie is pretty tasty.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.goodreads.com&amp;#x2F;author&amp;#x2F;show&amp;#x2F;49941.Alan_Furst&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.goodreads.com&amp;#x2F;author&amp;#x2F;show&amp;#x2F;49941.Alan_Furst&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>