Nate, veteran of post Cold War operations, finally enters that season of life when operation agent needs to enter more and more support functions and slowly delegate the actual operations to junior agents. So he returns back to his central in London and gets re-assigned to second league Russian intelligence ring, one more concentrated in the local UK defense than international shenanigans. His role is simple, observe, train and handle the existing mish-mash of Russian ex-patriots and political turn overs who are now working for UK. Not much of interesting mission but it is at least something to do so Nate accepts it. It is new world for him, world where people feel more than they think, people thinking they know all there is to know and very soon one of such emotional idiots will cause a crisis, and not just that but pull unwilling (and completely unaware) Nate and his family down the sink - all in the name of ideals.

Le Carre manages to tell the story set in modern times - it is time of Brexit, it is time of Trump's presidency and entire world is in sort of an ecstasy, having identified Brexit and Trump (and Russians of course) as a single threat to what is (in their opinion) perfect world (hah!). So they let their emotions rule and make not just idiots out of them but put them and their families into deadly danger.

For Nate, and when it comes to that, for the entire group he works with, it is idiotic to allow ones emotions to rule over - world and politics have seen dumber people and dumber actions so to make drama and draw parallels between people from today with evils from the past is just a way to devalue the dangers from those evils and in some cases rehabilitate them (by that constant eternal cry of high emotions). I like Nate's thoughts on the emotional storm from one of the younger agents; it makes him smile because colleagues that get hyped by what they hear and get attached to this "righteous" nonsense, are not able to see how childish it is [and Nate recognizes it because it is standard juvenile behavior, one he is constantly in conflict with through relation with his "rebellious" daughter, one he loves very much but one that devoted her life to shock and awe her parents, as children often do].

So when pretty dirty piece of information comes to light Nate decides to help because he knows emotions are something agents like him use to manipulate people around and he cannot stand people he holds dear to suffer from the same manipulation. And what happens when he tries to help? He gets looked down upon because highly emotional people cannot control themselves, they need to be the moral purity and supreme.

Excellent book and very contemporary. It is wonderfully written and book will keep you up all night until you finish it.

Highly recommended to all fans of good spy story.

P.S.

What prevenred me from reading this book couple of years back, where some comments and reviews that were about the democracy and how "eveel" forces are tearing it apart that portrayed the book as rather preachy. Having bad experiences with "The Fox" by one of the great spy/thriller authors (Forsythe) I decided to postpone reading this book. One reviewer even said that book shows only societies that can progress are authoritarian (made my day, I was laughing for two days and decided to skip it for the time being - again confirming that opinion should be based on my own experiences.... Oh well ( )

Another captivating book by the master of spy novels. Once more we are swept into the life of a spymaster, or rather an ex-spymaster, Nat, who is now home in London and feeling as unsure of what to do with himself as his office does. He's trying to reconnect with his wife and his daughter and wondering if he actually agrees with his new badminton partner, Sam, who rails against Brexit and Trump and Putin and anything else that doesn't fit his world view. Of course, Nat soon finds himself drawn into recruiting and running another spy, in London, and the twists of fate soon leave him almost as friendless as Sam.
This is le Carré at his best. Boiled down. Insightful. At turns appropriately humorous and cruel. His spies find action in inaction and waiting. In talking their way through confrontations, rather than shooting. Recommended. ( )

I like this author very much and am happy to report that this book is terrific - characters, plot, writing: topnotch. ( )

A spy thriller with no explosions, no gun play, and modest spycraft that is nonetheless intense and satisfying. ( )

It has been a while since I read something both well-written and that I needed to finish to find out what was going to happen. I picked this up after dropping some other drivel and was happy to place myself in le Carré's deft hands. This novel may not have the layered deception of his greatest works, but if it were some younger man's first work, we would have heard much more about it. I did wonder if I would enjoy it as much if I were British, since, for me, the occasional Britishisms add so much to its entertaining atmosphere. Some reviewers have complained that their man Trump does not come off well here, and although I think, to some degree, they are showing the inherent paranoia of the sucker, they should have noticed that the most virulent comments are put into the mouth of a character who is a near-crank. Naturally, I don't think that members of the "base" would write a novel like this, but, more importantly, could they? [Grammarly shows an emoji that evaluates the overall tone of my writing. When I typed "sucker", it turned into a red angry face. This is, I think, unfair.] ( )