The Spy Who Came in from the Cold is a tale of espionage from the days of the Cold War. John le Carre describes the work of  intelligence officer Alec Leamas. The tension in Berlin t bleeds at the seams where tension rises between East and West. Agents, handlers, and intrigue mix in this classic work of Cold War fiction. Le Carre does an excellent job painting a stark picture of the spy game of the 60's. It is difficult to describe this book without giving too much away so I wont: your welcome. The initial shock of names and places wear off as the pages turn. The world of George Smiley and his contemporaries came into focus about a third of the way through. I found it a bit challenging to track what was going on at first. After I had acclimated myself to the personnel the story began to move. Each scene feels carefully placed and the story unfolds to open up in a way that catches the reader off guard. The heros of the story are people, made human but the careful story telling of le Carre from page to page.

I would recommend reading this book to fans of espionage. It is not a thriller (read James Bond), it focuses on the brutality of the intelligence war that was fought between two superpowers for nearly fifty years. Dont let the myriad of names phase you. It all clears up soon and the complex web of whos and wheres becomes clear.