Agent Running in the Field
First edition cover
AuthorJohn le Carré
Audio read byJohn le Carré
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
PublisherViking Books
Publication date
17 October 2019
Media typePrint (Hardcover)
Pages288
ISBN978-0-241-40123-1
823/.914
LC ClassPR6062.E33 L43 2019
Preceded byA Legacy of Spies 
Followed bySilverview 

Agent Running in the Field is a 2019 novel by British writer John le Carré, published on 17 October 2019.[1] It was le Carré's final novel to be published before his death in 2020.

Plot summary

The novel is set in 2018 and depicts the relationship between Nat (né Anatoly),[2] a 47-year-old member of the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), and a young man (Ed) with whom he plays badminton weekly.[3] After their matches, Ed rants about Brexit and Trump, to which Nat quietly listens and tacitly agrees. Meanwhile, Nat is running an operation to monitor a Ukrainian oligarch living in London. Through this mission, one of Nat's agents reveals that Ed is giving British secrets to Russian intelligence. Nat's MI6 colleagues suspect Nat of abetting him and grill him. Through their questioning and Nat's continued investigation, Operation Jericho is revealed: a plan for the U.K. to use covert means to undermine the E.U. at the U.S.’s behest.[4]

Themes

In an extract from the novel published prior to publication, The Guardian describes how "Nat admits to serious reservations about the idea of England "as the mother of all democracies", describing the country as in freefall, with "a minority Tory cabinet of 10th-raters... Labour no better. The sheer bloody lunacy of Brexit". Boris Johnson is described in the book as a "pig-ignorant foreign secretary".[5] John le Carré's editor at Viking Books, Mary Mount, has said that "The thing about Le Carré is that he's always been as much at home in Europe as Britain. A man with his experience of the Cold War could not walk away from the divisions in Britain, and between Britain and Europe... After the referendum, there was no choice for him except to look at where we are now... It is incredibly prescient, and a very emotional book in terms of how connected he feels to the history of Britain and Europe. There's no looking away, he addresses the very current political crisis".[1][6]

Literary significance and criticism

According to Bethanne Patrick, writing for NPR, "The pre-publication press release tells us this is le Carré's 'Brexit novel', but that diminishes a novel that may be a portrait in miniature of modern spies, but is in miniature as detailed and astonishing and entertaining as anything in its genre today."[7] Robert McCrum wrote of the book; "Le Carré delivers a tale for our times, replete with the classic seasoning of betrayal, secret state shenanigans and sad-eyed human frailty, all baked into an oven-hot contemporary thriller that’s partly inspired by the machinations of 21st-century Ukraine, today more than ever the fatal crossroads of great power politics."[8] An anonymous book review at Kirkus Reviews summarized: "A tragicomic salute to both the recuperative powers of its has-been hero and the remarkable career of its nonpareil author."[9] Michael J. McCann found the book "a pleasure to read," but noted that the secondary characters were underdone and the ending "feels hurried and rather truncated."[10]

References

  1. 1 2 Alison Flood (7 September 2019). "Exclusive: John le Carré's new novel set amid 'lunatic' Brexit intrigue". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 September 2019.
  2. ↑ Jake Kerridge (13 October 2019). "Agent Running in the Field by John le Carré, review: a tale of espionage and betrayal in the age of Brexit". The Telegraph. Retrieved 15 October 2019.
  3. ↑ "Agent Running in the Field.John le Carré". Penguin Books Limited. A Penguin Random House Company. Retrieved 15 October 2019.
  4. ↑ "Agent Running in the Field Summary & Study Guide". Book Rags. 2021. Retrieved 29 December 2021.
  5. ↑ James Naughtie (14 October 2019). "John le Carré: 'Politicians love chaos - it gives them authority'". BBC.com. Retrieved 15 October 2019.
  6. ↑ Sarah Lyall (25 August 2017). "In conversation. Spies Like Us: A Conversation With John le Carré and Ben Macintyre". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 October 2019.
  7. ↑ Bethanne Patrick (25 October 2019). "John Le Carré Works Out Some Obsessions In 'Agent Running In The Field'". NPR.org. Retrieved 4 March 2020.
  8. ↑ Robert McCrum (21 October 2019). "Agent Running in the Field review – Brexit fuels John le Carré's fury". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 March 2020.
  9. ↑ "Agent Running in the Field". Kirkus Reviews. 22 October 2019.
  10. ↑ Michael J. McCann (21 October 2019). "Agent Running in the Field review – Brexit fuels John le Carré's fury". The New York Review of Books. Retrieved 4 March 2020.
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