The fact that le Carre is sensitive to political fashion and is able to anticipate a timely issue is considered his most important achievement. Ostensibly, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold addresses the tensions in the 1960s between East and West Germany, and in general between the East and the West. The construction of the Berlin Wall became a symbol of this ideological conflict, and le Carre at the beginning of his career and thereafter was able to seize upon a timely situation, well-documented because of his own personal experience in Germany, and convincingly presented.

There is, however, a deeper concern in The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, and in basically all of le Carre's espionage novels. Le Carre addresses the moral ambiguities facing everyone in contemporary society. There are no absolutes, neither in one's private nor one's political...