The Company (Littell novel)
 First edition (US) | |
| Author | Robert Littell |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Overlook Press (US) Macmillan (UK) |
Publication date | 2002 |
| ISBN | 978-1-58567-197-7 |
The Company: A Novel of the CIA is an American novel written by Robert Littell and published by The Overlook Press in 2002. The plot interweaves the professional lives of both historical and fictional characters in the field of international espionage between June 1950 and August 1995.
The book was a New York Times bestseller and received wide critical acclaim.[1]
It is the basis of a 2007 miniseries starring Michael Keaton, Chris O'Donnell, and Alfred Molina.
Notable historical characters
The plot includes numerous characters based on historical persons, with varying degrees of verisimilitude.
The following is a list of the historical persons who speak or interact with other characters in the novel:
- Martin Bormann (as Martin Dietrich)
- Reinhard Gehlen
- Yuri Andropov
- Kim Philby
- James Angleton
- Lucian Truscott
- William Colby
- Richard Helms
- James Reston
- Dick Bissell
- Llewellyn Thompson
- Judith Campbell Exner[2]
- Allen Dulles
- Dwight Eisenhower
- Sam Giancana
- Mikhail Gorbachev
- E. Howard Hunt
- Lyndon B. Johnson
- John F. Kennedy
- Joseph P. Kennedy Sr.
- Robert F. Kennedy
- Nikita Khrushchev
- Manuel Piñeiro
- Johnny Roselli
- Mstislav Rostropovich
- Pope John Paul I
- Frank Sinatra
- Fidel Castro
- Harry Truman
- Frank Wisner
- James Baker
- Ronald Reagan
- Bill Clark
- Boris Yeltsin
- William Casey
- Vladimir Kryuchkov
In addition, William King Harvey does not appear by name, but the character "Harvey Torriti, a.k.a. the Sorcerer" is a very thinly-disguised version of Harvey.
References
- ^ "Hardcover Fiction". The New York Times. 2002-04-28. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-01-21.
- ^ The novel refers to her as Judy Exner in events taking place as early as 1960 though she was then divorced from actor William Campbell and used his surname. She did not marry Dan Exner until the 1970s.
This is in keeping with the author's practice of using consistent names for people or organizations whose historical names changed over time like the KGB for the organization since it was at various times known as the Cheka, GPU, OGPU, NKVD, NKGB, MGB, and finally KGB).
External links
- NPR's All Things Considered reviews The Company:[1]