Leamas is finished. Every agent he ran in the field has been remorselessly hunted and killed. It is time to come home, to come in from the cold. But in the moral ambiguities of the Cold War, nothing is ever as it seems — particularly where George Smiley is involved. With its thrillingly effective atmosphere and lean, brilliant prose, John le Carre's breakthrough novel is a suspenseful masterpiece, and a gripping insight into the unforgiving ethics of espionage. With it, he changed the rules of the game, and was rocketed to worldwide fame.