With The Little Drummer Girl, le Carré has abandoned the polite chess game of the Cold War. He has plunged instead into a very hot and current struggle of hand grenades and fragmentation bombs, the mutual campaign of terror waged by the Israelis and Palestinians…. [The central character,] Charlie, an idealistic young actress and a political innocent, has been chosen to lead an imaginative journey, one that parallels a personal journey of le Carré's: from initial sympathy for the Israelis to a sombre, bitter recognition of Palestinian oppression and pain. The plot is as labyrinthine as ever. But the passion of the writing, kindled by an overwhelming concern for peace in the Middle East, is unmatched. Out of his sorrow and fury le Carré has written a novel that rises eloquently above the politics of the Middle East. With The Little Drummer Girl he has transcended his...