#9 in Spy & espionage
A Perfect Spy
- 576
- Pages
- about 11 h
- Reading time
- Best Crime Novel in Swedish Translation
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Our view
“A Perfect Spy” is one of le Carré’s most personal novels, a searching portrait of Magnus Pym and the father who shaped him. It follows a senior intelligence officer coming apart morally and mentally, and much of it draws on the author’s own life. Some readers see it as a literary novel more than a spy thriller; others find the middle slow. Best for those who read the genre for its psychology.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
A Perfect Spy (1986) is a novel by British author John le Carré about the mental and moral dissolution of a high-level intelligence officer. Major aspects of the novel are lifted from the life of the author, including the relationship between the protagonist, Magnus Pym, and his father Rick Pym.
Where the score comes from
The sources average 8.0 across 63 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 30% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Spy & espionage average of 7.6. That is how 7.7 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 7.5 | 8 | 13% |
| Hardcover | 8.1 | 55 | 87% |
Frequently asked
How long is A Perfect Spy?
It has 576 pages — longer than 90% of the ranked books in Spy & espionage.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Spy & espionage — with scores between 7.6 and 7.9, closest to this book.
