The Little Drummer Girl
First UK edition
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| Author | John le Carré |
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| Cover artist | Jeffeson Godwin |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Spy novel |
| Publisher | Hodder & Stoughton (UK) & Alfred A. Knopf (USA) |
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Publication date
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1 March 1983 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 430 pp (hardback edition) |
| ISBN | (UK hardback edition) & (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 is trying to kill a Palestinian terrorist named Khalil, who is bombing Jewish-related targets in Europe, particularly Germany, and the English actress Charlie, who becomes a double agent working on behalf of the Israelis. The novel does not feature le Carré's most famous character George Smiley.
Despite the plot, some reviewers thought it transcends the spy novel genre. "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."
Martin Kurtz, an Israeli spy working in a clandestine agency to allow plausible deniability for his superiors, recruits Charlie, a radical left-wing English actress, as part of an elaborate scheme to discover the whereabouts of Khalil, a Palestinian terrorist. Charlie's case officer and furtive lover is Joseph.
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, the goal being that, when Khalil discovers the affair and contacts Charlie, the Israelis will be able to track him down.
Khalil does contact Charlie through intermediaries, and she travels to Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon to be trained as a bomber. She becomes more sympathetic to the Palestinian cause, and her divided loyalties bring her close to collapse.
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Wikipedia