content: I read one novel by John Le Carre before: Our Kind of Traitor, which was terribly disappointing. Th Spy, on the other hand, has been included in the list of top 100 novels of the century by Time. I picked it up.The beginning of the novel is gripping, the plot develops unpredictably. However, from the middle of the book it just deteriorates into cliches, "good British spies against bad communists". I wish the author spent time studying East German justice system, to at least get the terminology right. It's a spoiler, but at the end of the novel the German intelloigence officer walks into a prison full of political detainees, opens the door with his own keys and lets the character - detained by the communist state - out into the street, where another escapee is waiting for her...Thhis novel is good to read in the dentist's waiting room. Top 100? No way.