2023/006: The Secret Pilgrim — John Le Carré

2023/006: The Secret Pilgrim — John Le Carré

I lived the wrong life, that’s all. You don’t know till it’s too late, though, do you, sometimes? You think you’re one person, you turn out to be another, same as opera. [p. 384]

Not so much a novel as a set of short stories, framed as the reminiscences of Ned, a former spy now in charge of the Service's training academy: he's invited his old colleague, the legendary George Smiley, to address the new intake, and Smiley's after-dinner speech -- about how the world has changed but also stayed the same, about the many reasons that lead people to choose a career in the intelligence services, about the difficulty of distinguishing the truth -- sparks Ned's memories.

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