The Company: A Novel of the CIA is a work of fiction

Fiction

Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...

 written by American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 novelist Robert Littell

Robert Littell (author)

Robert Littell is an American novelist and journalist residing part of the time in France. He specializes in spy novels that often concern the CIA and the Soviet Union....

 and published by Penguin Press in 2002. The plot interweaves the professional lives of both historical and fictional characters in the field of international espionage

Espionage

Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it...

 between June 1950 and August 1995.

The book was a New York Times bestseller and received wide critical acclaim.

It is the basis of a 2007 miniseries

The Company (TV miniseries)

The Company is a miniseries about the activities of the CIA during the Cold War. It was based on the best selling novel by Robert Littell. The teleplay adaptation was written by Ken Nolan.-Plot:...

 starring Michael Keaton

Michael Keaton

Michael John Douglas , better known by the stage name Michael Keaton, is an American actor known for his early comedic roles, most notably his performance as the title character of Tim Burton's Beetlejuice . Keaton is also famous for his dramatic portrayal of Bruce Wayne/Batman in Tim Burton's...

, Chris O'Donnell

Chris O'Donnell

Christopher Eugene "Chris" O'Donnell is an American actor. He has played Robin in two Batman films, Batman Forever and Batman & Robin, Charlie Simms in Scent of a Woman, Finn Dandridge in Grey's Anatomy, Peter Garrett in Vertical Limit, and more recently, Jack McAuliffe in The Company. O'Donnell...

, and Alfred Molina

Alfred Molina

Alfred Molina is a British-born American actor. He first came to public attention in the UK for his supporting role in the 1987 film Prick Up Your Ears...

.

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:

• Yuri Andropov
  Yuri Andropov
  Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov was a Soviet politician and the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 12 November 1982 until his death fifteen months later.-Early life:...
  
  
• James Angleton
  James Jesus Angleton
  James Jesus Angleton was chief of the Central Intelligence Agency's counterintelligence staff from 1954 to 1975...
  
  
• Dick Bissell
  Richard M. Bissell, Jr.
  Richard Mervin Bissell, Jr. was an American Central Intelligence Agency officer responsible for major projects such as the U-2 spy plane and the Bay of Pigs Invasion.-Early years:...
  
  
• Judith Campbell Exner
• Allen Dulles
• Dwight Eisenhower
• Sam Giancana
  Sam Giancana
  Salvatore Giancana , better known as Sam Giancana, was a Sicilian-American mobster and boss of the Chicago Outfit from 1957-1966...
  
  
• Mikhail Gorbachev
  Mikhail Gorbachev
  Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991...
  
  
• E. Howard Hunt
  E. Howard Hunt
  Everette Howard Hunt, Jr. was an American intelligence officer and writer. Hunt served for many years as a CIA officer. Hunt, with G...
  
  
• Lyndon B. Johnson
  Lyndon B. Johnson
  Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...
  
  
• John F. Kennedy
  John F. Kennedy
  John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
  
  
• Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr.
  Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr.
  Joseph Patrick "Joe" Kennedy, Sr. was a prominent American businessman, investor, and government official....
  
  
• Robert F. Kennedy
  Robert F. Kennedy
  Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy , also referred to by his initials RFK, was an American politician, a Democratic senator from New York, and a noted civil rights activist. An icon of modern American liberalism and member of the Kennedy family, he was a younger brother of President John F...
  
  
• Nikita Khrushchev
  Nikita Khrushchev
  Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...
  
  
• Kim Philby
  Kim Philby
  Harold Adrian Russell "Kim" Philby was a high-ranking member of British intelligence who worked as a spy for and later defected to the Soviet Union...
  
  
• Manuel Piñeiro
  Manuel Piñeiro
  Manuel Piñeiro Losada , known as Barba Roja , was a Cuban political and military figure, a leading character of the Cuban Revolution, as the first head of Fidel Castro's security apparatus...
  
  
• Johnny Roselli
  John Roselli
  John "Handsome Johnny" Roselli , sometimes spelled John Rosselli, was an influential mobster for the Chicago Outfit who helped them control Hollywood and the Las Vegas Strip. Roselli was also involved with the Central Intelligence Agency plot to kill Cuban leader Fidel Castro in the early 1960s...
  
  
• Mstislav Rostropovich
  Mstislav Rostropovich
  Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich, KBE , known to close friends as Slava, was a Soviet and Russian cellist and conductor. He was married to the soprano Galina Vishnevskaya. He is widely considered to have been the greatest cellist of the second half of the 20th century, and one of the greatest of...
  
  
• Pope John Paul I
  Pope John Paul I
  John Paul I , born Albino Luciani, , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and as Sovereign of Vatican City from 26 August 1978 until his death 33 days later. His reign is among the shortest in papal history, resulting in the most recent Year of Three Popes...
  
  
• Frank Sinatra
  Frank Sinatra
  Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
  
  
• Fidel Castro
  Fidel Castro
  Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...
  
  
• Harry Truman
• Frank Wisner
  Frank Wisner
  Frank Gardiner Wisner was head of Office of Strategic Services operations in southeastern Europe at the end of World War II, and the head of the Directorate of Plans of the Central Intelligence Agency during the 1950s....
  
  
• Boris Yeltsin
  Boris Yeltsin
  Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin was the first President of the Russian Federation, serving from 1991 to 1999.Originally a supporter of Mikhail Gorbachev, Yeltsin emerged under the perestroika reforms as one of Gorbachev's most powerful political opponents. On 29 May 1990 he was elected the chairman of...
  
  

External links

• NPR
  NPR
  NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...
  
  's All Things Considered
  All Things Considered
  All Things Considered is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio. It was the first news program on NPR, and is broadcast live worldwide through several outlets...
  
  reviews The Company:http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1141540