Britain is in the depths of recession.A left-leaning young Oxford academic and his barrister girlfriend take an off-peak holiday on the Caribbean island of Antigua.By seeming chance they bump into a Russian millionaire called Dima who owns a peninsula and a diamond-encrusted gold watch.He also has a tattoo on his right thumb, and wants a game of tennis.
What else he wants propels the young lovers on a tortuous journey through Paris to a safe house in the Swiss Alps, to the murkiest cloisters of the City of London and its unholy alliance with Britain's Intelligence Establishment.
'While other novelists are doing everything they can to inflate their tales of cloak and dagger, trust le Carré to make his story of international money laundering, political infighting and unwitting treachery into a chamber symphony of exquisite delicacy.' Kirkus
'Those readers who have found post-cold war le Carré too cerebral will have much to cheer about with this Russian mafia spy thriller . . . le Carré ratchets up the tension step-by-step until the sad, inevitable end. His most accessible work in years, this novel shows once again why his name is the one to which all others in the field are compared.' Publishers Weekly
'He's a bit of a magician alright.' John Banville
'le Carré continues to be the world's most reliable witness to the vicissitudes of international, paranoia.' Andrew O'Hagan
'Small Town in Germanywas the first adult novel I was allowed to read when I was a kid and I have been a huge fan ever since.' Brian Walker