The Looking Glass War

A forgotten corner of British intelligence, a small department left over from the Second World War, looks for a chance to prove it still matters. When a hint of a Soviet missile build-up in East Germany reaches it, the officers plan an operation of their own. They send an inexperienced agent into the field with outdated methods and little real support. The novel is a bleak, ironic study of institutional vanity, nostalgia and the human cost of amateur ambition. It is quieter and sadder than le Carré's more famous earlier success.