The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

by Fiona MacKenzie (Adapter), John le Carré

Alec Leamas, a tired, worn out British spymaster, has retired. His boss, however, believes he has one last job in him and sends him to East Germany to spread false information about a powerful East German intelligence officer. Can Agent Leamas end his career of espionage and finally come in from the cold, or will the opportunity to take revenge on old enemies prove irresistible? Penguin Readers is a series of the best new fiction, essential non-fiction and popular classics written for learners of English as a foreign language. Beautifully illustrated and carefully adapted, the series introduces language learners around the world to the bestselling authors and most compelling content from Penguin Random House. The eight levels of Penguin Readers follow the Common European Framework and include language activities that help readers to develop key skills. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, a Level 6 Reader, is B1+ in the CEFR framework. The longer text is made up of sentences with up to four clauses, introducing future continuous, reported questions, third conditional, was going to and ellipsis. A small number of illustrations support the text.

Genres: Crime

96 pages, Paperback

Published September 5, 2019

About the author

This is the disambiguation profile for otherwise unseparated authors publishing as Fiona MacKenzie

Reviews

[Michelle]

Started it again, and glad I did. Needs concentration, and may have to read it again

[Ahmed Elzakzouk]

A wonderful meticulously knitted story.

[Yvette]

Leamas 虽然心甘情愿做了棋子，但在柏林墙上看到Liz躺在下面那一刻，还是听从了内心。

[Arjun]

british foreign policy gets us all in the end

[Olivier Eymery]

Gripping, dark, and cynical. John Le Carré at his best.

[Conrad]

A fantastic read - very gripping

[Catalina]

A marvelous masterpiece! It is indeed an exciting spy novel full of intrigues, quite well developed dialogues among characters, their description; hidden feelings and unexpected behaviors. The whole plot leads easily the reader into the ambiance of the espionage and counterespionage during the 60´s decade, the core of the Cold War in Britain, Germany and The Netherlands; a detailed description that places all perfectly for a mind like a big screen movie.
The story unfolds Alec Leamas, who used to work as a spy for the British intelligence, someone wanting to quit that job but in order to retire he must accept one last mission, a treason he shall commit for his country in the search for a way out; it will bring misfortune for him and his lover. “The spy who came in from the cold” is a book with the aim to demonstrate how spies are not priests, saints or martyrs but individuals who might follow orders of any kind by their superiors, even if they shall act against their principles. The title “…Coming in from the cold” is a metaphor about Leamas coming in not as a spy but as a person, someone who develops human empathy. Five stars.

[Reader]

It's a very detached book because everything is a lie and just as you think you know the truth, it's another lie. It's hard to understand the personality of any of the characters, except Liz, who seems so innocent throughout. Though perhaps even that's a lie. I suppose we'll never know.

At the beginning, I felt it wasn't interesting because of how detached it was. I was only being told events without descriptions of what the characters are really like.

This made it unique to me because it's different from what I am used to: something more character driven. So, I continued to read.

I'm very glad I did, because I realised only at the end that the detachment is the point. In fact, it is in my opinion, why it's so cleverly written. I can't help but wonder what Le Carré's thought process was as he wrote this.