London suburbs, early 1940s. Two boys play war. Imagining that the mother of one of them is a German spy, they begin to follow her every move. However, a seemingly innocent child's game suddenly takes on a sinister turn... And 60 years later, this story - from a different angle, with a different understanding of events - is recalled by the aged hero.

Michael Frain (b. 1933), the famous English writer and playwright, translator of A. P. Chekhov’s plays, demonstrates in the novel “Spies” an extraordinary skill of psychological nuance. This is subtle prose, the main thing in which is a complex play of perceptions; the image of reality takes shape here like a puzzle, putting it together is an incomparable intellectual pleasure. In 2002, the novel was longlisted for the Booker Prize.