{"product_id":"2026600000733-secondhand-the-looking-glass-war","title":"The Looking-Glass War","description":"\u003cp\u003eEdition: First Edition\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition remarks:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBook: Good                          \u003cbr\u003eJacket: Worn\/faded, no tears\u003cbr\u003ePages: Good         ,          price clipped\u003cbr\u003eMarkings: Previous owner\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA masterwork of Cold War espionage fiction, The Looking-Glass War chronicles the desperate and ultimately tragic attempt by a fading British intelligence department to recapture its wartime glory through one last covert operation. Le Carré presents a bleak, unsentimental portrait of bureaucratic incompetence and institutional vanity, as aging spymasters send an ill-prepared agent behind the Iron Curtain to investigate a suspected Soviet missile site in East Germany. The novel uncovers the human cost of institutional pride, illustrating how ordinary men are sacrificed on the altar of departmental rivalry and nostalgia. Written with Le Carré's signature understated prose and biting irony, the tone is one of quiet, suffocating dread rather than glamorous adventure, standing in sharp contrast to the romanticized spy thrillers of its era. A profound and sobering meditation on failure, loyalty, and the machinery of deception, it remains one of the most psychologically astute entries in the espionage genre.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Secondhand Stock","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48750325104859,"sku":"2026600000733-SECONDHAND","price":40.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0523\/7646\/9701\/files\/8481d845-a449-4c3d-8e28-f4865de69276.png?v=1778094231","url":"https:\/\/bookgrocer.com\/products\/2026600000733-secondhand-the-looking-glass-war","provider":"Book Grocer","version":"1.0","type":"link"}