Silverview (2021) by John Le Carre

Book Review

Silverview (2021)

by John Le Carre

   Silverview, the last novel by John Le Carre, was published posthumously this past October.  It's an entirely domestic piece of spy fiction, revolving around the death of a woman who was an important theorist in the Middle East division of MI6 and the subsequent investigation of her husband, also a spy.  The protagonist at the center is Julian Lawndsley, a 33 year old ex-"city man" (what we would call a finance bro) who has "retired" to open a book shop in a small East Anglican town.  There he meets Edward Avon, the aforementioned husband- a curious man with an indeterminate European accent who loves W.G. Sebald and The Rings of Saturn. That's Le Carre in a nutshell, a spy novelist capable of creating entire literary universes filled with secret agents who read W.G. Sebald (I love Sebald, but I've literally never met another human being who has even heard of him outside of those I have specifically told.)

  The spy stuff itself isn't 007 level, but then, when is it ever for Le Carre.  Lots of interviews and skulking about, and recriminations about actions taken in the past for God and Queen.  Le Carre will be missed, but at least he left 20 plus novels behind.