What are the motifs in The Honourable Schoolboy by John Le Carre?

Family is an important reocurring idea in this novel because it is the motivation that propels several of the main characters and a motivation that repels another. Drake and Nelson Ko are refugees of the terrible fighting in China in the early part of the twentieth century. Drake is an intelligent man who adores his little brother. Nelson is more volatile than his older brother, more entranced with the political climate within which he and his brother grow up. Nelson is also intelligent, attending university and attaining a high position within the country that allows him access to important Chinese political figures and government secrets.