Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

A dizzying, "what if" take on (in)famous British spy Kim Philby. In 1963, Kim Philby, a member of British Intelligence, was exposed as a double agent working for Russia. The case continues to provide a mother lode for spy novels, and in this latest, Littell (The Stalin Epigram, 2009, etc.) spins the story even further, building to a finish that suggests the story still offers at least one more stunning "shoe drop." Littell's narrative follows the outlines of Philby's private and public lives, which here are inextricably linked. The story unfolds in a series of first-person accounts from friends, lovers and contacts who knew Philby at key junctures in his career as an agent. There's Litzi Friedman, who first puts callow but wary Philby in touch with the Russians when he visits Vienna; Guy Burgess, Philby's flamboyantly gay classmate at Cambridge, whom Philby enlists as a spy for the Soviets; Frances Doble, a film star who romances Philby as he reports on the Spanish Civil War for the London Times; and Philby's father, Harry St John Bridger Philby, aka "the Hajj." From these narratives emerges a mural of the history of espionage before, during and after World War II, as well as an in-depth portrait of Philby, who becomes a canny informant despite his fear of the sight of blood. The narrators speak with distinctive voices, yet the chapters are unified by the dark lens of Littell's mordant take on spies and their craft. As in The Company (2002), Littell shows particular skill at recreating pulse-quickening epic scenes of conflict--the Russian-backed uprising against Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss, the war against fascist dictator Francisco Franco, and the horrors of Stalin's kangaroo courts and of Moscow prisons. Veteran Littell remains unbowed by commercial pressures to speed up the text. Elegantly written paragraphs and speeches running to half pages distinguish his work. A Cold-War spy novel for the top shelf.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Publishers Weekly
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Littell (The Company) offers an episodic, multifaceted look at the making of one of the world's most notorious double agents, Harold Adrian Russell Philby, better known as "Kim" (after the hero of Kipling's famous novel). After a prologue set in 1938 Moscow, the novel proper opens in 1933 Vienna, where Philby plans to aid refugees from Nazi Germany, but is really looking "for adventure, a cause to believe in, comradeship, affection, love, sex." He finds all of them, neatly bound up in Hungarian-born Communist activist Litzi Friedman, who eventually becomes his wife and introduces him to the Communist Party. As "one of the last romantics," Philby is an easy convert, but the inevitable question is what motivated him to betray his country. Littell provides no easy answers, though in a coda he suggests a tantalizing rationale for Philby's actions. Readers should be prepared for an overwhelming amount of period detail that robs the narrative of any substantial momentum. Agent: Ed Victor, Ed Victor Ltd. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

Could Kim Philby, legendary British spy turned traitor and one of the Cambridge Five university students recruited by the Soviets in the 1930s actually have been a triple agent, working for MI6 while he was purportedly spying for the Russians and then continuing to serve Britain even after he escaped to the Soviet Union in 1963? Espionage-fiction master Littell thinks so and constructs a thoroughly believable scenario based on some intriguing, if not definitive, historical evidence. But whether the premise is fact or fiction, Littell turns it into a cracking good spy thriller, drilling deeply into the multifaceted character of Philby and emerging with a Cold War drama that exposes how true believers of every stripe were seduced by the heady mix of deceit and intrigue that continues to define the great game of espionage. Especially fascinating is Littell's account of Philby's experiences working for the Communists in Spain, during which the young British aristocrat is transformed from an idealistic, stammering twit into a shrewd manipulator of those around him, a man irresistible to women and driven by a complex set of beliefs and desires. A must for Cold War buffs.--Ott, Bill Copyright 2010 Booklist