The book in one sentence
There are few books that have created such an effect, becoming so much a part of their time, that they become not only the emblem of the era, but also a way to delve into it.
General information about the book
In the early hours of the morning of August 13, 1961, East German troops barbed wire to the western sections of Berlin and separated them by a newly erected wall. The wall (the capital letter almost clung to the word almost immediately) would stand for 28 years and inspire powerful ideological threats such as thunder, countless acts of heroism (which in most cases proved futile), a synthesizing symbol for film projects, as well as a valuable literary work that has made room for itself with its gaining popularity. John le Carré has said that the idea for "The Cold Spy" came to him after he went specifically to Bonn to see the Wall, and, in fact, no other book has been so closely associated with him - the story line of the novel starts and ends at that wall,
The novel "The Spy Who Came Back from the Cold" by British writer John Le Carré, first published in 1963, has now become a classic. With his unparalleled knowledge, gathered from years of experience in the ranks of the British Secret Service, Le Carré sheds light on the dark relations of international espionage during the Cold War period.
In the shadow of the newly erected Berlin Wall, Alec Limas sees his last agent killed by East German soldiers. For Limassol, a British agent in Berlin, the Cold War is over. As he waits to retire or worse yet, be given a routine office job, Control, the head of the Service, gives him a rare opportunity to take revenge. Limassol must take on the role of a disillusioned Western agent and try to join the ranks of the East German Secret Service in order to oust its leader, Mundt. Double play, danger, ingenuity, composure, cold war between two enemy camps to the death are skillfully described by John Le Carré.
In his extraordinary work, the story of espionage is a bold and terrifying tale of people who have been held hostage by politics beyond what they imagined.
Critics
The most beautiful story I have ever read about espionage.
Graham Greene
Portrait of a man who has lived so long between lies and deception that he has forgotten how the truth is told.
Time
He knows how to convey emotions, from sweating from fear to desperate love, with a persuasive, benevolent, benevolent style. Above all, he knows how to tell a story.
Sunday Times
One of those rare novels that changes the mindset of the world. Agile, extremely sophisticated, excellent.
William Boyd, writer
Author
John Le Carré was born in 1931. He studied at the universities of Bern and Oxford. During the Cold War he was part of the British Secret Service. In 1960 he was transferred to the Intelligence Agency, M16, and worked under the guise of "second secretary" at the British Embassy in Bonn. During this period, he discovered his passion for writing, publishing several novels. Many of his works have been screened, such as "The Spy Who Came Back From the Cold", "The Panamanian Tailor", "The Tinsmith, the Tailor, the Soldier, the Spy". John Le Carré is one of the most prolific writers of his generation and continues to write important works to this day.
Excerpts from the book
1) "The devil took that woman," thought Limas, "along with the wit Karl, who lied to me about her; has lied to me by not mentioning it, as secret agents all over the world do. You teach them how to deceive and cover their tracks, and in the end, they deceive you too. ”
2) Are we forced to live without creating sympathy for anyone, or am I not saying good? Only that this is impossible, of course. We play theater by being harsh with each other, but basically we are not like that, I mean ... one does not have to stay outside all the time, in the cold; it needs to be returned, to be protected from the cold ... do you understand where I mean?
3) ... it is up to us to do unpleasant deeds, but we are always in a defensive position. And that to me is fairly honest. We do indecent work, so that ordinary people, here and elsewhere, sleep soundly at night, in their bed. Doesn't this make our work more romantic? Of course, on occasion, we do very mean things, - he laughed like a schoolboy. - And, weighing the morality, we allow ourselves to give in to inappropriate comparisons, that in the end, the ideals of one party are not put in the balance with the methods of the other party, or is it not so?
4) All your work - yours and mine - is based on the theory that the general is more important than the individual. This is why the communist sees the Secret Service as a natural extension of his arm, and this explains why in your homeland, espionage is wrapped in the veil of the so-called pudeur anglaise *). The exploitation of individuals is considered justified only when the collective need demands it, right?
5) Mundi is their man; he gives them what they want. That's not hard to understand, is it? Leninism, the benefit of fluid alliances, of temporary arrangements. What do you think the agents are: clergy, saints or martyrs? They are just a miserable cortege of wasted idiots, traitors if yes, and then, homosexuals, sadists, drunkards, people who play the good and the bad to make a little light on their rotten lives! Doesn't the thought mean that they sit like monks in London, weighing the moral and the immoral?
