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Content snapshot
Flag an inaccuracy →What's in this book, at a glance — five things readers want to know before they start.
Violence
Some
Cold War operations; some deaths; a shooting at the Wall
Language
Some
Adult language; period British register
Sexual Content
Some
Adult relationships; an affair that is central to the plot
Substance Use
Barely any
Social drinking throughout
Emotional Intensity
A lot
The psychological weight of discovering you've been used and what you've been used for; le Carré's characteristic moral devastation
What this book is about
Alec Leamas, a British intelligence officer whose East German network has been destroyed, is offered one final mission before he retires. He is to feed disinformation that will discredit East German intelligence chief Hans-Dieter Mundt—or so he's told. Le Carré's 1963 spy novel is the antidote to Bond: a vision of espionage as moral corruption, institutional cynicism, and the sacrifice of individuals for strategic convenience. The ending is one of the most devastating in thriller fiction.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
A devastating ending at the Berlin Wall
The moral corruption of Cold War intelligence work
A protagonist who is deliberately kept in the dark
Reader Verification
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