This newest book by John Le Carre has all the features which makes him the great author of the shadow world of international espionage: A very topical theme - fear of islamic terrorism in the host city of some of the 9/11 terrorists - , gentlemen and not so very gentle men in the late afternoon of their professional and personal lives, an amour fou linking a young woman to a refugee and suspected terrorist and linking a declining banker, the gentleman, to the young woman who is a well meaning lawyer to aid the suspected terrorist. All of this happens at a good pace in the very well described ambiance of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg with its respected merchant and banking community and its lovely maritime atmosphere underneath of which there lurks fear and loathing and fierce competition among several secret services. The book was inspired by the story of Murat Kurnaz, a Hamburgian who had been kept in Guantanamo for several years. I like the ambiguity of the book very much and, of course, there is no happy end which is only to be expected because this is the real world as seen through John Le Carre s tired but observant eyes.