SILVERVIEW

John le Carré's last novel does not disappoint, nor does Toby Jones's performance. As always, the story is built around spies and their work, but this time the main concerns are loyalty and belonging: To whom do we belong, and to whom do we owe loyalty? Jones takes on a range of accents, some of them less familiar to American listeners and some of them fairly subtle, including a character with a Polish and French background. But all of them are thoroughly convincing, as is the spectrum of emotions the characters display--or pretend to display. They appear as le Carré drew them, as mostly sympathetic people with difficult lives, trying in different ways to do their best. D.M.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine [Published: NOVEMBER 2021]