John the Square left at his death, in December 2020, a posthumous gift. The undisputed genius of literary espionage I had saved a novel ready to be revised. ‘Silverview Project ‘(Planeta / Edicions 62) It now comes to the hands of readers, who will immediately recognize a very familiar world. Julian, in his thirties, leaves the environment in the throes of finances in the City to open a bookstore in a small coastal town in England, despite his ignorance of the trade. The peace he sought will be disturbed by the encounter of a strange neighbor of Polish origin, Edward Avon, whose wife, an Arabist named Deborah, is ill. Both have a career in international espionage behind them, how might it be otherwise.
Commissioned by the father
“It is a very classic book in a sense. It is like his first novels, short, compact. It talks regarding English hypocrisy and the ruling class and at the same time summarizes in that small English city the problems of the entire cosmos,” he explains Nick Cornwell, the youngest of the author’s children, in a videoconference meeting from his home in London. He was commissioned by his father to polish the novel he had written and which he kept in 2014. Years later, he had to honor that promise. “I think that if he did not want to publish it, it was because in a certain sense it is a requiem to the intelligence services in the United Kingdom, just as he had described them before. Is a novel in which there is no one left with integrity. At the same time it’s regarding a metaphor for British society, the end of integrity “.
Anglo-Saxon critics have lavishly praised the impeccable style of this light work, with all the narrative ingredients of Le Carré, who published 26 novels over six decades. His advanced age – he died at the age of 89 – did not prevent him from continuing to write to the end, as he had always done, in the quiet offices of his home in Cornwall or in the London borough of Hampstead.
“Perfect”
There are older and more recent papers, documents, material in the family archives, but as a complete novel this is the only one, according to Cornwell. “He was regarding to send it to be published when he finished it. For some reason he put it aside. He sometimes mentioned the possibility of returning to it, as any writer does. Going to read it I was afraid it was bad, but I found it perfect “. In the editing work, he adds, has wanted to interfere “the least.” “We can say that he ran the marathon and I gave him the final push to cross the finish line.”
The liberal, tolerant, anti-totalitarian future, where Britain might be more integrated into Europe, multilateralism, was fading. The society he longed for
‘Project Silverview’ is a tale marked by disenchantment. The author of ‘The spy that emerged from the cold’ he had lost faith in his own country. “Or rather,” Cornwell points out, “he will say that the country had lost faith in itself. The country he believed in in 2014 and 2016, with the Brexit Above all, it was disappearing, it was evaporating. Since the end of the Cold War and already around the years 2000, with the changes following the attacks of September 11, the liberal, tolerant, anti-totalitarian future, where Great Britain might be more integrated in Europe, multilateralism, was fading. The society he longed for. “Brexit exasperated him and hurt him deeply. In a last act of protest and rebellion, he became an Irish national because he did not want to renounce his European identity.
Yes, I am one of many who might not do what we would have wanted for our parents in their last days, while the Prime Minister was drinking wine in Downing Street
No nostalgia for the past
The palpable political anger in his writings and public statements in recent years did not embitter his character in private life. “My father was always on guard, even with his negative emotions. He leaned on the more compassionate side. On a private level he tried to calm things down. When he thought something was not right, he would argue, and if he was wrong, he would apologize.” Nor was he nostalgic for the Cold War, the period that defined his literary career. “I think he was the least nostalgic person I have ever met. The Cold War It marked his life, but he hated it for everything that was done wrong at that time. Thought there was a chance that we did not know, or might not take advantage of. He always looked to the future, he wanted a better future, rather than a better past. ”
Double loss
The name that is part of the title of the novel, Silverview, is the English translation from the German of the house in Weimar where the philosopher Federico Nietzsche he spent the final years of his life. Cornwell doesn’t quite know why his father chose him. “Perhaps his intention was to snatch that figure from those who want to make a worse world.” Silverview is also the name of the house where the enigmatic Pole lives with his wife, who is dying of cancer, the illness that killed the writer’s wife two months following he succumbed to pneumonia. They were very hard moments for the family, Cornwell acknowledges excitedly, when they were in full confinement. “Yes, I am one of many who might not do what we would have wanted for our parents in their last days, while the Prime Minister was drinking wine in Downing Street. That’s something I’m still angry regarding. “
‘Proyecto Silverview”https://www.lne.es/”Silverview’
John Le Carre
Editorials: Planet / Editions 62
Translations: Ramón Buenaventura / Núria Parés
304/240 pages. 20.90 euros
.