The Spy Who Came In from the Cold

John le Carre, a British writer, published the Cold War spy novel The Spy Who Came In from the Cold in 1963. It is set in the world of British intelligence that le Carre had already begun to describe in his earlier books.

Alec Leamas runs British intelligence operations in Berlin, and when his network is destroyed he is brought home with nothing left to run. He is offered a job that suits a man in his position: to present himself in East Germany as an officer who has turned against his own side.

The false defection is designed to damage one particular East German intelligence officer, and it depends on people on both sides believing a story that is only partly true. Leamas, who is given no way back, has to work out which of the people handling him are telling him the truth.

The novel features le Carre's recurring organisation, the Circus, and its agent George Smiley, and it is often read as a reply to the more glamorous spy fiction of the period. A film adaptation followed in 1965.