Pre-order John le Carré’s new novel Agent Running in the Field now, and be one of the first to read it.‘No other writer has charted – pitilessly for politicians but thrillingly for readers – the public and secret histories of his times’ Guardian________________________________Nat, a 47 year-old veteran of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, believes his years as an agent runner are over. He is … Intelligence Service, believes his years as an agent runner are over. He is back in London with his wife, the long-suffering Prue. But with the growing threat from Moscow Centre, the office has one more job for him. Nat is to take over The Haven, a defunct substation of London General with a rag-tag band of spies. The only bright light on the team is young Florence, who has her eye on Russia Department and a Ukrainian oligarch with a finger in the Russia pie.
Nat is not only a spy, he is a passionate badminton player. His regular Monday evening opponent is half his age: the introspective and solitary Ed. Ed hates Brexit, hates Trump and hates his job at some soulless media agency. And it is Ed, of all unlikely people, who will take Prue, Florence and Nat himself down the path of political anger that will ensnare them all. Agent Running in the Field is a chilling portrait of our time, now heartbreaking, now darkly humorous, told to us with unflagging tension by the greatest chronicler of our age.
_______________________________
‘John le Carré is as recognisable a writer as Dickens or Austen’ Financial Times
‘No writer has ever been better at turning the act of two people talking politely to each other across a desk into a blood sport’ Telegraph
more
I’ve been reading le Carre in order of publication but broke out of sequence to read this, his newest. It’s a brilliant delve into what brought on Brexit and how some people may chose to deal with it. I confess I suspected the antagonist, but it was a good reveal at the end. A great sequence where the British intelligence protagonist goes to an old Russian intelligence contact of his and we get a “behind the scenes” look at the life of a Russian oligarch/gangster. Brilliant and timely book.
Le Carre back to his best with a good old fashioned spy story.
Le Carre in form from beginning to end.