Writer John le Carré donates $ 100,000 to MSF

He usually shies away from honors and light and refuses rewards of any kind. Except this time. The British novelist John Le Carré, creator of the character of the spy George Smiley and author of a saga on the Cold War with planetary success, was awarded the Olof Palme prize.

This distinction, named in memory of the Swedish leader assassinated in 1986, is attributed for "an exceptional achievement in terms of anti-racism, human rights, international detente, peace and general security".

It was notably awarded to Vaçlav Havel, Amnesty International or, last year, whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, who had exposed Washington's secret plans in Viet Nam (at the center of the film "Pentagon Papers").

"A humanist commitment" in favor of freedoms

Its organizing committee announced Friday that the 2019 winner was the author of "The spy who came from the cold", "La Taupe" and "The little girl with the drum", whose real name is David Cornwell, 88 years old.

The award recognizes his “humanist commitment, through literature, in favor of the freedom of the individual”, as well as his incentive to “challenge the cynical games of the great powers”. It will be officially handed over to him on January 30 in Stockholm.

The novelist immediately announced that he would donate the 100,000 dollars rewarding the NGO Médecins sans Frontières. He had hinted that the most recent of his 25 novels, “Agent Running in the Field,” which appeared in English in October 2019, would be the last he wrote.

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A former British intelligence officer, John Le Carré wrote his first book, "The Call of the Dead," while stationed in Germany for MI-6. He was reported by double agent Kim Philby, a KGB spy, and forced to end his career.