Book of the week: Orwell’s Roses by Rebecca Solnit

The appearance of what is billed as John le Carré’s “last complete masterwork”, less than a year after his death, “seems almost suspiciously opportune”, said Andrew Rosenheim in The Spectator. Yet whatever the publishing expediency involved, Silverview makes for a “very fine finale”.

Set in an East Anglian coastal town, it centres on Julian, a 33-year-old bachelor who has “fled the City” and now runs a bookshop. One evening, an “exotic foreigner” called Edward comes in, claiming to have been a friend of Julian’s late father. Soon afterwards, an MI5 agent shows up, asking questions about Edward – who is clearly not what he seems.

“Thematically, this is classic le Carré,” said Jake Kerridge in The Daily Telegraph: an exploration of betrayal and moral expediency, written in “unshowily superb” prose.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

There’s certainly little here we haven’t seen before in “late-period le Carré”, said Dominic Sandbrook in The Sunday Times. Still, “perhaps it’s the privilege of a great writer to repeat himself”. And aficionados will enjoy “seeing the old formula given one last runout”.

Viking 224pp £20; The Week Bookshop £15.99

The Week Bookshop

To order this title or any other book in print, visit theweekbookshop.co.uk, or speak to a bookseller on 020-3176 3835. Opening times: Monday to Saturday 9am-5.30pm and Sunday 10am-4pm.