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The Company: A Novel of the CIA
 
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The Company: A Novel of the CIA [Audio Download]

by Robert Littell (Author), Scott Brick (Narrator)
4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
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Product details

  • Audio Download
  • Listening Length: 18 hours
  • Program Type: Audiobook
  • Version: Abridged
  • Publisher: Phoenix Books
  • Audible Release Date: 29 Jun 2006
  • Language: English
  • ASIN: B002SQ7RDM
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)

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Product Description

Robert Littell creates a multigenerational, wickedly nostalgic saga of the ClA, "The Company" to insiders. The fictional and historical characters of Robert Littell's novel reveal much of the nearly 50 years of this complex and powerful organization. At the heart is a mole hunt involving the CIA, M16, KGB, and Mossad, a stunningly conceived trip down the rabbit hole to the labyrinthine Alice-in-Wonderland world of espionage, a "world where things have no names".

Racing across a landscape spanning the legendary Berlin Base of the '50s, the front line of the simmering Cold War Soviet invasion of Hungary, the Bay of Pigs, Afghanistan, and the Gorbachev putsch, The Company tells the thrilling story of agents imprisoned in double lives, fighting an enemy that is amoral, elusive, formidable.

Littell also lays bare the internecine warfare within "The Company" itself, adding another dimension to the spy vs. spy game. An atmosphere of distrust pits the counter-intelligence agents behind the desks in Washington, like the utterly obsessive real-life mole hunter James Jesus Angleton, against the covert action boys in the field, like "The Company's" Harvey Torriti, The Sorcerer, a brilliant and brash rules breaker, and his Apprentice, Jack McAuliffe, recruited fresh out of Yale, who learns both tradecraft and the hard truths of life in the field.

As this dazzling anatomy of the CIA unfolds, nothing less than the future is at stake. And the future is often only the day after tomorrow. At once a celebration of a long Cold War well fought and an elegy for the end of an era.

©2002 Robert Littell; (P)2006 Phoenix Audio
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First Sentence
HIGH OVER THE CITY, A RACK OF CLOUDS DRIFTED ACROSS THE hunter's mooon so rapidly it looked as if a motion picture had been speeded up. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
THE novel of the CIA 6 April 2002
Format:Hardcover
Robert Littell has been called "our" (Yanks, that is) John Le Carre. The book bears the legend "a novel of the CIA". The former, I think even the British will agree, is more than accurate. The latter is a gross understatement. At close to 900, absolutely never dull, pages, this book, which essentially spans the entire Cold War history of the organization, is THE novel of the CIA. Always even-handed, always engrossing, this is not only a corking novel, but a brilliant history of our recent times. I am prone to recommend books I like as things people "should" read. This is, as they say in blurbsville, an absolute "Must" read for any serious spy novel afficianado.
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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The size of this book, 1283 pages to be exact, is at first daunting. However, I was addicted after the first page. The plot is so complex, dramatic and exciting that I didnt want it to end. The fictious plot uses various historical cold war events and personalities in such a clever manner that I felt as if I were reading an actual account of the CIA. Littel is so clever at having centered his four main characters around momentous events in Cold war history, that you end up thinking if he himself is/were a CIA agent and this is his autobiography.
I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys edge-of-your-seat cold war thrillers. I have read many cold war novels and none of them compare to this book. This is the book that everyone is talking about, and don't be put off by its size, its worth savouring every page!!!!!!!!!
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Too cool for school 14 May 2012
Format:Kindle Edition
As a lover of spy fiction, I thoroughly enjoyed this. Yes, it's very long - the only problem you will face is trying to stay awake so you can carry on reading at 3am! I do agree with some of the other reviewers that important episodes seem to have been left out. On reflection, though, I prefer the detail with which the main episodes have been sketched. This book did for me what a really good book will do - it incentivised me to go and find out more about particular events such as the Hungary uprising.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
The company
This book details the several infiltrations by the KGB and the damage done by these episodes to the credibility of the CIA. Read more
Published 29 days ago by BruceL
Interesting Fiction of the Cold War Years, and the Secret Servicess
This book gives an interesting view of the CIA, MI6, and the KBG, in those Cold War years, and though fictionalised, it is obviously a well researched work; and includes many... Read more
Published 4 months ago by derryhawk
One of the best.
There's not much I can say about this book that hasn't already been said by others.
Probably the best spy thriller I've read. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Paul Nicholls
The Company by Robert Littell
This is quite frankly the daddy of espionage books. Better written that a Le Carre novel and not as jingoistic and implausable as Tom Clancy. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Mickster79
Spy Saga Sags
This is a sanitized fictionalized "history" of the CIA in which the Americans and Israelis are the "good" guys and the Russians, Cubans, Arabs etc. are the "bad" guys. Read more
Published on 4 May 2009 by John Fitzpatrick
The American le Carré
Just about the only criticism I had of this book is that its 1200+ pages are contained in one volume, making it diffficult to read and hold. Read more
Published on 6 April 2009 by Enthusiastic
The Company - Fiction served on a layer of fact makes for a thrilling...
The Company is easily one of the very best novels I have ever read.

It follows the careers of several recruits to the newly-formed CIA from their first days in training... Read more
Published on 17 Nov 2007 by Mr. R. I. Moir
A masterpiece in espionage writing
Everything about The Company is on a massive scale. The story spans almost 50 years in the history of the CIA; global history and politics of the time are the backdrop to the... Read more
Published on 15 Aug 2007 by Jl Adcock
If you liked 'The Good Shepherd' then read this.
People have likened 'The Good Shepherd to 'The Godfather'. I would do the same for this book. It is a great saga.
In spite of the length, I was sorry to finish it. Read more
Published on 8 July 2007 by Chris Rawlings
Best Book Ever (OK maybe not the best ever but mighty good)
Brilliant from start to finish. Forget about writing styles, terminology, cliches, for pure entertainment value I haven't read one to beat it. Read more
Published on 15 Feb 2007 by Carlan14
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