Berlin Game (1983)

In this, his first Bernard Samson narrative, Len Deighton gives us the story of a weary MI6 veteran who's pulled back into danger when a suspected mole threatens London's Berlin intelligence network. As Cold War pressures intensify, Samson is forced to negotiate frayed loyalties and return to the divided city of his youth, where nostalgia threatens to cloud his professional judgement further. Deighton's prose balances the tight rope of moral uncertainty while softly critiquing early Thatcherism - the result being a portrayal of Britain as a nation losing coherence... not to mention its secret intel!

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