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Associated Press

 A Legacy of Spies
by John le Carré
Viking
3.5 stars
John le Carré’s newest novel brings back the man who is perhaps le Carre’s most famous of spies, George Smiley, though mostly in name and recollection. Smiley is missing in action from the present in the story, but his influence is powerful and pervasive in the story’s past.
The cast of A Legacy of Spies is filled with characters from earlier Smiley books such as Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy as readers revisit the cold war of East Berlin in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Smiley acolyte Peter Guillam is forced into becoming our narrator as the modern British Secret Service is threatened with legal action over alleged past misdeeds.

Guillam tells the tale of spies crossed and doubled-crossed, of spies murdered and rescued, and of deceit within his own Circus, as the spy shop was then known. He recalls his own involvement in Operation Windfall, and the reader is left to work out how much of Guillam’s confession is deception, intended to mislead his friendly interrogators, and how much he was himself misled by his mentor, Smiley.
The Night Manager is a compelling take on John le Carré’s novel of the same name
The plot revolves around a series of intelligence sources providing information about the Stasi, the East German Intelligence Service. One source escapes the Stasi net but is later betrayed and another agent is turned to the British side before also being discovered.

The British try to protect their information flow, all the while working under the uncertainty of a spy operating among their own ranks. How do you save your spies when you have a mole within your own service? To paraphrase the old intelligence saying, “Who watches the watchers?”, the reader is left to wonder who deceives the deceivers?
Book review: The Serpent Papers - thrilling debut by John le Carre’s granddaughter
Le Carré has the future of England and of Europe on his mind while telling this tale. Real sacrifices were made during the cold war, to go along with the fictional ones of A Legacy of Spies.
He forces readers to confront the past, and with it our notions of past motivations and deeds, but at the same time has a focus on the present state of Britain and its future. Le Carré seems to be railing against Brexit in this novel. Those sacrifices weren’t made in the name of Britain alone but for all of Europe, for the West.
Film review: Our Kind of Traitor – enjoyable John le Carre thriller stars Ewan McGregor, Stellan Skarsgard
“If I had an unattainable ideal, it was of leading Europe out of her darkness towards a new age of reason. I have it still,” says Smiley to Guillam as he recalls his motivations. A Legacy of Spies recollects le Carré’s legacy as a master spy novelist – the book has a nostalgic feel to it – and the characters’ presence is comforting, even if the lessons within are not.
With each new novel, le Carré continues to shine a light on the dark and fascinating world of spies.


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Brexit

Review: Le Carré’s A Legacy of Spies – George Smiley, a dark past and some Brexit fears

British actor Gary Oldman played George Smiley in the film adaptation of John le Carré’s novel Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.

Cover of "A legacy of spies" by John Le Carre. [FEATURES] Photo : Handout

This Alamy picture shows John Le Carre. [FEATURES] Photo : Handout

In Little England, the conceit of Brexit is on full display

British Prime Minister Theresa May attends the first day of the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham, at a time when the country faces important questions about its future outside the European Union. Photo: AFP

Leaflets for Momentum, the group set up to support Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the U.K. opposition Labour Party, sit on a table after an event held on the sidelines of the Labour Party annual conference in this arranged photograph in Liverpool, U.K., on Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2016. Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the Labour Party, will order his rebellious lawmakers to fall into line behind him and prepare for a general election he’ll say he expects Prime Minister Theresa May to call next year. Photographer: Luke MacGregor/Bloomberg

Books about British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson are displayed for sale at a gift shop inside the International Convention Centre in Birmingham, central England, on October 2, 2016 before the start of the first day of the Conservative party annual conference. Britain's governing Conservative Party meets for its annual conference from Sunday facing questions over how and when it will take the country out of the European Union following the Brexit vote. / AFP PHOTO / OLI SCARFF

Commuters walk past the Bank of England (BOE) in the City of London, U.K., on Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2016. BOE officials announce their next interest rate decision on Thursday, when they are forecast to keep policy unchanged as they assess the outlook for the economy since the Brexit vote. Photographer: Luke MacGregor/Bloomberg

Container boxes are uploaded at a port in Qingdao, Shandong Province, China, September 8, 2016. China Daily/via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. EDITORIAL USE ONLY. CHINA OUT. NO COMMERCIAL OR EDITORIAL SALES IN CHINA.?

Culture

Books

Master spy Smiley looms large in trademark tale of double-cross, murder and deceit as the author forces readers to confront cold war deeds and question the merit of a British exit from Europe
