The Little Drummer Girl
 First UK edition | |
| Author | John le Carré |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Jeffeson Godwin[1] |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Spy novel |
| Publisher | Hodder & Stoughton (UK) & Alfred A. Knopf (USA) |
Publication date | 1 March 1983 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 430 pp (hardback edition) |
| ISBN | 0-340-32847-9 (UK hardback edition) & ISBN 0-394-53015-2 (US hardback edition) |
| OCLC | 9424294 |
| Preceded by | Smiley's People |
| Followed by | A Perfect Spy |
The Little Drummer Girl is a spy novel by John le Carré, published in 1983. The story follows the manipulations of Martin Kurtz, an Israeli spymaster who intends to kill Khalil - a Palestinian terrorist who is bombing Jewish-related targets in Europe, particularly Germany - and Charlie, an English actress and double agent working on behalf of the Israelis. Despite the plot, some reviewers thought it transcends the spy novel genre.[2] "The Little Drummer Girl is about spies", said William F. Buckley, writing in The New York Times, "as Madame Bovary is about adultery or Crime and Punishment about crime."[3]
Plot summary
Martin Kurtz, an Israeli spy working in a clandestine agency to allow plausible deniability for his superiors, recruits Charlie, a "21 or 22 year old" radical left-wing English actress, as part of an elaborate scheme to discover the whereabouts of Khalil, a Palestinian terrorist. Joseph is Charlie's case officer. Khalil's younger brother Salim is abducted, interrogated, and killed by Kurtz's unit. Joseph impersonates Salim and travels through Europe with Charlie in order to make Khalil believe that Charlie and Salim are lovers. When Khalil discovers the affair and contacts Charlie, the Israelis are able to track him down.
Charlie is taken to Palestinian refugee camps to be trained as a bomber. She becomes more sympathetic to the Palestinian cause, and her divided loyalties bring her close to collapse. Charlie is sent on a mission to place a bomb at a lecture given by an Israeli moderate whose peace proposals are not to Khalil's liking. She carries out the mission under the Israelis' supervision. As a result, Joseph kills Khalil. Charlie subsequently has a mental breakdown caused by the strain of her mission and her own internal contradictions.
Film adaptation
The Little Drummer Girl was made into a feature film by George Roy Hill in 1984. It starred Diane Keaton as Charlie, Yorgo Voyagis as Joseph, and Klaus Kinski as Kurtz. The film changes Charlie from an English twentysomething to a thirty-ish American. The film was released on DVD in 2006.
Television adaptation
An upcoming BBC/AMC miniseries adaptation will be directed by Park Chan-wook starring Florence Pugh, Alexander Skarsgård and Michael Shannon.[4] Also starring Clare Holman, Kate Sumpter, Charles Dance, Simona Brown, and Max Irons; It will debut in November 2018.[5]
Reviews
John Grisham, when queried by Bill Moyers, picked The Little Drummer Girl as one of his favorite novels, saying, "I love to read John le Carré, the British guy who's really probably my favorite writer. The Little Drummer Girl is a book I read about every four or five years. It's just so clever and brilliantly plotted. [sic] It's the kinda' book–and his writing is off the charts, the way he expresses himself and the way he describes people and dialogue–and every time I read that book, it inspires me to be better."[6]
References
- ↑ "Modern first editions".
- ↑ See e.g. A. Broyard, The New York Times book review
- ↑ "Terror and a Woman". www.nytimes.com.
- ↑ "BBC - Production commences on The Little Drummer Girl - Media Centre". www.bbc.co.uk.
- ↑ "First 'The Little Drummer Girl' Images Show Off Alexander Skarsgard and a Mustachioed Michael Shannon". 30 July 2018.
- ↑ Bill Moyers. "Bill Moyers talks with John Grisham". https://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/index.html. PBS. Retrieved 6 November 2014. External link in
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