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World-famous writer John le Carré, who forged thrillers out of adventure, morals, and literary style, died at the age of 89. His agent announced it on Twitter. Le Carrés Verlag Penguin Books said in view of the rampant corona pandemic that the death was not related to Covid-19.
“It is with great sadness that I have to announce the death of one of the world’s greatest writers, John le Carré,” said Johnny Geller, the deceased’s agent. Le Carré, whose real name was David Cornwell, was best known for his Cold War spy novels.
His family also confirmed on Sunday that Le Carré had died of pneumonia Saturday night at the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro, in south-west England. “We all deeply regret his passing,” the family wrote in a statement. (kes)
Studied German in Switzerland
Le Carré was born on October 19, 1931 in the county of Dorset, in the south of England. Secrets, betrayals and lies permeated his family environment. These were also the themes that he had to deal with in his literary work. His mother left the family when he was five years old. His father was a con man who moved between fraudulent wealth and prison. Le Carré dealt with him in many books, such as “A Blinding Spy” (1986).
Le Carré studied German in Switzerland and ended up working as a British Secret Service agent, although not with much success. Meanwhile, he began to write; With his third novel, “The Spy Who Came from the Cold,” he made a breakthrough. He became known for his clever and suspenseful spy novels, which primarily revolved around the Cold War.
Heroes with weaknesses
Good and bad merged, agents were not heroes, but people with strengths and weaknesses. A central character was disgruntled spymaster George Smiley, who was betrayed by his wife and suffered from the unscrupulous reality of his industry. Smiley had his best known appearance in the bestseller “Dame, König, As, Spion” (1974), which was filmed remotely in 2011 with Gary Oldman.
The fall of the Iron Curtain changed le Carré’s perspective: his books now dealt with the arms trade, the machinations of pharmaceutical companies, the war on terror, or the Russian mafia. (kes / SDA)
