The Russia house

Barley Blair is a cheerful, hard-drinking London publisher who is drawn into a secret affair when a manuscript arrives from a Soviet scientist, hinting at startling truths about the Soviet military. British and American intelligence officers rush to use Barley as their go-between and send him to Moscow. There he meets Katya, a woman connected to the mysterious author, and his loyalties are tested. Set as the Cold War is thawing, the novel is a humane, melancholy spy story about trust, love and the weariness of old certainties.