Faith
Author: Len Deighton
Release: January 1, 1994
Publisher: HarperCollins
Genre: Fiction, Spy Fiction, Thriller
ISBN-10: 0060176229
ISBN-13: 978-0060176228
Main Character(s): Bernard Samson, Fiona Samson, Werner Volkmann, Dicky Cruyer
Synopsis: In 1987, as the Cold War reaches a climax, British agent Bernard Samson confronts difficulties at home and on the job as he copes with an affair with a coworker, his wife, ethical conflict, and high-level government scandal.
Declassified by Agent Palmer: Have Faith That This Deighton Trilogy has More Secrets to Reveal
Quotes and Lines
This volume – Faith – follows directly from the end of Spy Sinker. As the summer of 1987 turns cold, Fiona’s recuperation in California is nearing an end. Bernard is at Los Angeles airport, saying goodbye to her as he departs on a mysterious assignment in communist East Germany. Like all the other books, Faith is designed to stand alone, and be read without reference to the other stories.
The kid thought I was nervous and he was right. If he knew what he was doing, he’d be nervous too.
…our footsteps crunching gravel like a company of soldiers marching through a bowl of cornflakes.
The field agent always desperately hopes that the operation can be salvaged. You hope like hell that the men assigned to meet you won’t just cut their losses and run.
‘It’s the nature of undercover work that the unexpected so often happens. You plan for three different eventualities but the fourth occurs.’
I wondered if perhaps I’d gone too far with my improvisation, although among London Central’s minions there was a theory that in bending reality to please one’s superiors you could never go too far.
‘Wives come first, Bernard. “Other women” know that. Deep in their hearts they know it.’
‘You don’t need to diet, Bernard. I’ve never seen you looking fitter. Have you taken up boxing? I used to be a rather useful fighter myself in my young days. How does he do it, Fiona? Tell me his secret.’
‘Anger,’ joked Fiona, but said it so promptly that an element of sincerity was evident in this judgment.
‘Anger? What kind of anger?’
‘Fierce and unrestrained anger at the world around him.’ She laughed to make it a joke.
‘It’s the hip replacement. She’s suddenly discovered good health. She is fired with all that evangelizing zeal of the newly slender.’
‘Scribble one of your famous reports that take five pages to say nothing.‘ – Werner
‘I suppose it will pass,’ I said. ‘I hear that everything passes in time: the pain of love, death, failure, humiliation, hatred, bereavement . . . the pain of everything fades eventually.’
‘There is no such thing as decision-making, that’s just a gimmick the gods provide to refine and add to the torment.’
‘Tough guys get lousy pension plans,’ I said.
What kind of business were we in, when lying to our children was mandatory? One day I would sit them both down and explain everything, but with average luck I’d be hit by a truck before that day arrived.
‘Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews eleven, verse one. I found that in a Bible I was given recently.’