John LeCarre’s third book has been much discussed by now and for good reason. Alec Leamas is a character unlike any other: morally ambiguous but still clinging to some shreds of ethics. When we meet him is on his way down: alcoholic, jobless, and eventually headed to prison. But it’s a rock bottom with a purpose, orchestrated by the nameless, faceless Control, the spymaster who runs him in a Cold War Europe. Will Control protect him as Leamas heads behind the Iron Curtain? Or will he be sacrificed for the greater good of the British people, democracy, and western freedoms? Leamas appears willing to be sacrificed on his own terms, but unwilling to allow the mousy-but-loving Liz Gold to be used unwittingly. The alliance between Leamas and Gold serves to define the limits of duty to country and ideology—how much should one be asked to give up for one’s beliefs? And at what point does that sacrifice make beliefs meaningless?