The Honourable Schoolboy

About this book

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy -- John le Carres last tremendous success-ended with the devastating unmasking of a double agent at the heart of the British Secret Service (known as the Circus to le Carres millions of readers round the world). Now in The Honourable Schoolboy George Smiley -- who has assumed the unenviable job of restoring the health and reputation of his demoralized organisation -- goes over to the attack. Salvaging what he can of the Services ravaged network of spies summoning back a few trustworthy old colleagues working them -- and himself-around the clock he searches for a whisper a hint a clue that will lead him back to his opposite number: Karla the Soviet officer in Moscow Centre who masterminded the infamous treachery. When he finds his opening Smiley moves without hesitation. His battleground: the Far East. His choice of weapons: the Honourable Gerald (Jerry) Westerby an Old Asia Hand veteran of several marriages (and wars) unquestioning in his readiness to answer Smileys summons. "You point me and Ill march " says Jerry. Jerrys odyssey begins: to Hong Kong-and blackmail and murder; to collapsing Cambodia and Vietnam-and drug traffickers the CIA and a huge and mystifying "gold seam" spilling out of Russia. Slowly manipulated by Smiley and his cohorts back in the Circus Jerry thrusts himself into the centre of an intrigue of money defection passion -- and finds not only fertile ground for Smileys revenge but a drama of loyalty and love that both tests his courage and spurs his belated coming of age in tragic defiance of the voracious requirements of the trice which owns his allegiance. Here is John le Carres richest most accomplished work. Suspense excitement the techniques of espionage as only he has been able to make them real for us -- together with a Towing capacity for sustained action a grandly conceived and intricately drawn plot and profound observation of the Far Eastern landscape. The Honourable Schoolboy is both a supreme entertainment and a major novel.