The Spy who came from the Cold - John Le Carre

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le Carré
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

One of the best books in Spy novels. Based in the cold war era. The books starts with a British spy failing in his mission to bring over his biggest catch from East Germany to West Germany. The spy is shot at the last moment in the no mans land between the two Germanys. The disillusioned spy comes back to Britain and soon is dismissed from service. He falls into bad times. He lives the life of a recluse doing odd jobs. Eventually he joins a library as a helping hand and falls in love with another girl working in the same library who happens to be a registered communist party member. He nevertheless continues the relationship with the girl. He falls ill and is tended to by the girl. He gets into a tiff with the local grocer and assaults him physically.
He spends sometime in the jail for a few months and on release is approached by an communist agent and is soon recruited for his working knowledge of spy system of Britain.
He is debriefed by the the communists and is taken over to East Germany for further questioning. He is questioned by the same people on whom he was spying a few years ago.
For what happens next read the book. It is too good to break the suspense here.
All in all a wonderful read for somebody who likes the cold war era spy novels.

View all my reviews