The Russia House cover art

The Russia House

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Unlimited access to our all-you-can-listen catalogue of 15K+ audiobooks and podcasts
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

The Russia House

By: John le Carré
Narrated by: Gildart Jackson
Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £16.99

Buy Now for £16.99

About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

John le Carré's first post-glasnost spy novel, The Russia House captures the effect of a slow and uncertain thaw on ordinary people and on the shadowy puppet-masters who command them

Barley Blair is not a Service man: he is a small-time publisher, a self-destructive soul whose only loves are whisky and jazz. But it was Barley who, one drunken night at a dacha in Peredelkino during the Moscow Book Fair, was befriended by a high-ranking Soviet scientist who could be the greatest asset to the West since perestroika began, and made a promise. Nearly a year later, his drunken promise returns to haunt him. A reluctant Barley is quickly trained by British Intelligence and sent to Moscow to liaise with a go-between, the beautiful Katya. Both are lonely and disillusioned. Each is increasingly certain that if the human race is to have any future, all must betray their countries ...

'Classic le Carré'
Sunday Times

©2011 John le Carré (P)2025 Penguin Audio Classics Espionage Spies & Politics Thriller & Suspense Russia Soviet Union
All stars
Most relevant
Loved Barley's winding path, his character build, the wonderful vocab used in the marvelous descriptions of the everyday scene.

Marvelous descriptions of the everyday

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Classic le carré. Short, not exactly sweet (obviously) but quietly entertaining. Highly recommended for fans of his early work.

The narration

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Probably the best read Audio book ever! I really enjoyed this book and also the commentary by John Le Carre afterwards

brilliantly read ! A classic

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Kept waiting /hoping for something to happen. Hmm…. I suppose some would appreciate the inner workings and nuances of running a spy, the behind the scenes minutiae, the lengthy board meetings at the ‘River’ but this was over baked. I normally love a spy thriller but just not this one. More of a dull love story

Like listening to paint dry

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.