Selected as Book of the Year by The Times Literary Supplement, the Evening Standard, the Daily Telegraph, and The Guardian, this novel is described by the Evening Standard as "a brilliant novel about deception, love, and trust that ranks among his finest work." John Banville notes in The Guardian: "Vintage le Carré. Incredibly clever, breathtaking. Really, since 'The Spy Who Came in from the Cold,' le Carré has not wielded his storytelling talent so powerfully and with such thrilling effect."

Peter Guillam, a former protégé of George Smiley in the British Secret Service, has long retired to Brittany when a letter arrives, summoning him back to London. The reason? The ghosts of the Cold War have returned to haunt him. Intelligence operations that were once the hallmark of the service are to be dissected by a generation that has no memory of the Berlin Wall. Someone must pay for the innocent blood shed in the name of the greater good. Completely gripping and profound.