Tim is an early middle aged retired spy put out to pasture. The pasture happens to include his girlfriend, the young and very beautiful Emma, and an estate with an improbable English vineyard, and the frequent presence of Larry, the double agent against the Soviets that Tim ran for 20 years. Larry's gone missing, and Emma as well. Has Larry gone to the Soviets one last time? Or are he and Emma lovers, run away? Or both?
But I found Our Game to be different in nature to many Le Carre novels - I found it to be one of his most human and accessible novels, concerned not just with the betrayal of country but the onset of middle age and with it the fears and second-guessing that come with it. And possessed of a surprisingly lyrical tone
"I have invited him here for a clandestine meeting up here on the Mendip Hills, on this moonscape plateau nearer to the sky than to the earth, where the trees throw deadman's shadows on the whited lane and no cars pass."
Our game explores (as Le Carre always does) the geography and emotional landscape of betrayal and the familiarity that sometimes breeds contempt in those we've known for a long time. Our Game also manages to explore infidelity, middle aged self deception and ennui and what we owe our friends, even if they betray us. Recommended.
