John le Carre The Spy Who Came In From the Cold

The Spy Who Came In From the Cold

John le Carre

Walker, Sep 2005, $19.00, 245 pp.

ISBN: 0802714541

In the early 1960s British Agent Alec Leamas is assigned control of undercover double agents working out of the wall that divides Berlin. His job is simple: keep everyone under his watch safe while infiltrating his men. However, somehow the East Germans are beginning to find and assassinate his spies.

Knowing that one death means failure, Leamas expects his London based boss Control to call him back to England. In some ways he looks forward to being fired so that he can come in from the Cold. Control brings Leamas home, but instead of sacking him, he orders him to play the role of a dishonored agency failure. Rumors spread about Leamas the loser even as he is deep behind the Iron Curtain.

This reprint of the Cold War espionage thriller came out in 1964 just after the Berlin Wall was raised. This reviewer did not read it (or any spy novel) until my spouse encouraged me around the time of the Iranian Hostage crisis to try this and Cooper's The Spy. In spite of a seemingly us vs. them surface mentality this tale (and its Revolutionary War predecessor) paints a grim shade of life due mostly to the outlook of the forlorn hero. Interestingly Leamas still holds up though the Wall is gone over a decade and this novel easily meets the test of time as a classic like the Cooper thriller because the protagonist is a real person though a spy for any season.

Harriet Klausner