AGENT RUNNING IN THE FIELD

John le Carré has always excelled at finding truth in the shadows, and this late novel is no exception. As the New York Times Book Review notes, his stories feel emotionally and psychologically exact, even while unfolding as fiction. The Los Angeles Times calls him one of our finest chroniclers of moral ambiguity and here, that uncertainty feels especially close to home. Nat is 47, a weary veteran of Britain's Secret Intelligence Service who believes his days as an agent runner are finally behind him. Back in London with his endlessly patient wife, Prue, he hopes for quiet. Instead, rising tension from Moscow Centre pulls him back in for one last assignment. He's sent to revive the Haven, a neglected intelligence outpost staffed by an unlikely, threadbare team. Among them is Florence, young, bright, and ambitious, with her sights firmly set on the Russia desk, and a Ukrainian oligarch whose loyalty is as slippery as his wealth. Outside the office, Nat finds release on the badminton court, where he regularly plays Ed, half his age, politically furious, deeply dissatisfied, and quietly drifting. Ed despises Brexit, Trump, and his hollow media job, and it's this improbable figure who slowly draws Nat, Prue, and Florence into a current of anger and consequence none of them fully understands. Darkly funny, sharply observed, and steadily tense, the novel is a chilling portrait of a fractured modern world, seen through le Carré's unmatched moral lens. 282 pages, easy-to-read print. Small remainder mark.