The Company cover art

The Company

A Novel of the CIA

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About this listen

 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 Espionage Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Spies & Politics Thriller & Suspense Exciting Heartfelt

Critic reviews

"It's gun-ho, hard-drinking, table-turning fun." ( Publishers Weekly)
All stars
Most relevant
A saga style book where we follow thwe adventures of CIA agents as they become wise in the ways of the world of intelligence. We all know that intelligence is mainly routine sifting and searching so this book with its emphasis on action and plotting is far from dull.
Nicely narrated and at no time did the fiction falterso a good listen.

A short history of the CIA

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Although I guessed who the real spy was long before he was uncovered, it did not detract in any way from my enjoyment of this audiobook which seamlessly mixes truth with fiction.

I don't think I can say more than is already said in the Publisher's Summary with which I completely agree.

A really good listen

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I have now listened to this twice and shall listen again quite soon. It is a fascinating story of the CIA - interweaving facts and fiction - so that I almost feel as if I worked there myself!
The reader is great - does all the accents wonderfully and his voice never becomes boring.
The interesting thing is that most of the book is in dialogue form - or seems to be......

A fascinating book

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