Book description
Barley Blair is not a Service man: he is a small-time publisher, a
self-destructive soul whose only loves are whisky and jazz. But it was
Barley who, one drunken night at a dacha in Peredelkino during the
Moscow Book Fair, was befriended by a high-ranking Soviet scientist
who could be the greatest asset to the West since perestroika began,
and made a promise. Nearly a year later, his drunken promise returns
to haunt him. A reluctant Barley is quickly trained by British
Intelligence and sent to Moscow to liaise with a go-between, the
beautiful Katya. Both are lonely and disillusioned. Each is
increasingly certain that if the human race is to have any future, all
must betray their countries ...
In his first post-glasnost spy novel, le Carr captures the effect
of a slow and uncertain thaw on ordinary people and on the shadowy
puppet-masters who command them.
Contains a foreword and afterword by the author.
