A Legacy of Spies
 Hardback edition cover | |
| Author | John le Carré |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Viking Press |
Publication date | 5 September 2017 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 272 |
| ISBN | 978-0735225114 |
| Preceded by | A Delicate Truth |
| Followed by | Agent Running in the Field |
A Legacy of Spies is a 2017 spy novel by John le Carré.
Background
A Legacy of Spies is both a prequel and sequel to John le Carré's The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. In that book, MI6 agent Alec Leamas, motivated by the death of his operative Karl Riemeck in East Berlin, agrees to undertake one final mission to get revenge on the man he believes to be Riemeck's murderer, a high ranking member of the Stasi named Hans-Dieter Mundt.
In the course of Leamas's mission, which finds him travelling to East Berlin, he – along with his lover, a young Communist sympathiser named Liz Gold – is shot to death at the Berlin Wall. The men responsible for dispatching Leamas – intelligence chief Control, Control's right-hand-man George Smiley, and Smiley's protégé Peter Guillam – escape unscathed.
Plot overview
Now older and living in retirement on a farm in his native Brittany, Peter Guillam – who narrates the story in the first person – is summoned to MI6 headquarters to account for his actions during Operation Windfall, the espionage mission depicted in The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. Learning that Leamas's now adult son, Christoph, is suing the British government for wrongful death, Guillam ruminates on the course of events that led to the death of agent Karl Riemeck, and how Guillam and Leamas worked together to try and save not only Riemeck's life but the lives of several other German citizens working with him to provide intelligence information to Britain.
The book alternates between Guillam's recollections of the events leading up to Leamas's demise and his attempts in the present day to stop feeling guilty for his role; his avoidance of Christoph, who wants to blackmail him; and his efforts to learn the whereabouts of Smiley, who has gone off the grid following his own retirement.
Background
In an interview with the National Public Radio series Fresh Air broadcast in the United States on 5 September 2017, le Carré told host Terry Gross that one of the reasons for writing the novel was "to make a case for Europe" in the wake of the 2016 British referendum, which resulted in a majority voting in favour of leaving the European Union.[1]
Critical reception
Writing in The Guardian, reviewer Robert McCrum called the novel "poignant and brilliant". Despite some misgivings, The New York Times reviewer Dwight Garner described it as "simmering".[2][3]
References
- ^ "Novelist John Le Carré Reflects On His Own 'Legacy' Of Spying". National Public Radio website. 28 December 2017. Retrieved 17 February 2018.
- ^ Robert McCrum (10 September 2017). "A Legacy of Spies review – a final turn from Smiley's Circus?". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 February 2018.
- ^ Dwight Garner (28 August 2017). "George Smiley and Other Old Friends Return in John le Carré's 'A Legacy of Spies'". The New York Times. Retrieved 17 February 2018.
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