The Spy Game

Georgina Harding

The fog from which their mother never returns is as much a character as the protagonists. Her children remain smothered by a ‘fog’ of questions about her death, and doubts about whether their mother was hiding something or whether it is just their own childish imaginings, until the book ends in Berlin in brilliant sunshine with some questions answered.

It is a beautifully written book and recreates a bygone era when fathers said little, boys were sent to boarding schools and children were expected to amuse themselves. Anna’s brother, Peter, becomes obsessed with the unveiling of sleeper spies and espionage. Desperate to cling to the belief that his mother has not died in a car crash, he constructs a world in which his mother was a spy and is still alive, merely called back to base by her handlers. Tiny details of the little they know of their German mother’s background, and how she met their military father in Berlin after the war, add to their beliefs and their bond.

The relationship between Peter and Anna starts to unravel. Only after Peter runs away, trying to find a woman he thinks is his mother – she was wearing the same coat – does the boy’s loss finally break his spirit and the bond with his sister. All the while, you feel their mother did have something to hide.

The story of remembrance, fact and imagination is intertwined with the present-day life of grown-up Anna and her relationship with her college-going daughter. Anna, finally determined to lay the ghosts of her past to rest, traces her mother’s early life to get answers. She travels to Germany ... but will it bring her peace?