Why am I passionate about this?
I have always been interested in politics, and when I was more naive, I believed politics was essential to protect ordinary people. Over time, however, you lose that innocence and begin to understand that, on the contrary, politics is often a means of controlling us and has few scruples about the lives it destroys.
My other great passion is literature. When you bring those two passions together and realize that the world is not quite as you have been told, you begin to feel a moral duty to tell that story, and to tell it as well as possible so that it can reach as many readers as possible.
W.'s book list on political spy thrillers where shadow powers change the world
Why W. loves this book
This book is the most recent novel I have read by John le Carré, an author I am deeply drawn to because, usually far removed from fast-paced action, he reflects with remarkable depth on the hidden and opaque forces that truly govern our societies.
Our Game feels like a fitting culmination of his career, and I could not put it down. I read it very quickly, thanks to the precision of his writing and his ability to sustain uncertainty throughout.
The title itself could not be more appropriate: “our game” is the game played by shadow powers, by the hidden face of the state, acting beyond democratic control and with profound disregard for the interests of ordinary men and women.
1 author picked Our Game as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
Le Carre's post-Cold War masterpiece, filled with suspense, betrayal, desire and drama
The Cold War is over and retired secret servant Tim Cranmer has been put out to pasture, spending his days making wine on his Somerset estate. But then he discovers that his former double agent Larry - dreamer, dissolute, philanderer and disloyal friend - has vanished, along with Tim's mistress. As their trail takes him to the lawless wilds of Russia and the North Caucasus, he is forced to question everything he stood for.
Set in a fragmented, uncertain post-Soviet world, le Carre's brutal story of falsehoods and…
