Product Description

Bruno Salvador, known to friends and enemies alike as Salvo, is the ever-innocent, twenty-nine-year-old orphaned love-child of a Catholic Irish missionary and a Congolese headman’s daughter. Educated first at mission school in the East Congolese province of Kivu, and later at a discreet sanctuary for the secret sons of Rome, Salvo is inspired by his mentor Brother Michael to train as a professional interpreter in the minority African languages of which, almost from birth, he has been an obsessive collector.

Soon a rising star in his profession, he is courted by City corporations, hospitals, law courts, the Immigration services and – inevitably – the mushrooming overworld of British Intelligence. He is also courted – and won – by the all-white, Surrey-born Penelope, star reporter on one of our great national newspapers, whom with typical impulsiveness he promptly marries. Yet even as the story opens, a contrary and irresistible love is dawning in him.

Despatched to a no-name island in the North Sea to attend a top-secret meeting between Western financiers and East Congolese warlords, Salvo is obliged to interpret matters never intended for his re-awoken African conscience.

(20060917)

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #113508 in Books
• Published on: 2006-09-21
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 352 pages

Sunday Times on ABSOLUTE FRIENDS
‘Thoroughly gripping’

Review

'Le Carre's eye is undimmed, his passion for his craft as strong as it ever was. He delivers a tale that few could equal and none will surpass.'

(Observer 20060917)

'THE MISSION SONG is meticulously researched, and the tricks and tactics of being a top interpreter are convincingly rendered. You're left with the uncomfortable feeling that perhaps politicians, journalists, civil servants and the businessmen really are the lying, amoral bastards portrayed here. Perhaps it isn't only in le Carre's world, but in the real world too, that we're unwise to believe what we are told.'

(Independent on Sunday 20060917)

'It is a fast-paced and entertaining book. Le Carre has constructed another one of his meticulous plots that satisfies in terms of theme, suspense and style. One is delighted by its satire, and moved by its insistence on the importance of doubt and the necessity of choosing responsibly at every moment.'

(Times Literary Supplement 20060917)

'le Carre shows no sign of slowing up or losing touch.'

(Spectator on THE MISSION SONG 20060917)

'I imagine this is the first time that le Carre has been mentioned in the same breath at Updike and Roth. They, after all, are Literary Novelists with a capital L and N, whereas Le Carre is . . . well. what is he? Actually he is sui generis. Or, rather, he is his own genre. Quite an achievement that.'

(Sunday Telegraph 20060917)

'Exquisitely crafted'

(Daily Mail 20060917)

‘A literary master for a generation’ (Observer on ABSOLUTE FRIENDS )

‘Complex, often sardonically funny, always galvanically written. In fact his best book in years’ (Daily Express on ABSOLUTE FRIENDS )

‘Richly detailed, full of righteous fire to offset its desperate prognosis, THE CONSTANT GARDENER is a very impressive piece of work.' (The Times Literary Supplement )

‘A page-turner which reminds us that the master storyteller of the Smiley books has lost none of his cunning’ (Daily Mail on THE CONSTANT GARDENER )

‘Another classic narrative. Nobody writing today manipulates suspense better. Nobody constructs a more tantalisingly complex plot. A powerful, moving novel that stands with le Carré’s best. It is, in other words, essential reading’ (Sunday Telegraph on THE CONSTANT GARDENER )

'This thriller exhibits his familiar strengths: superbly realised characters; a succession of knockout scenes nobody else could produce; and a distinctive ability to fuse social comedy and moral anger . . . Mesmerising.'

(Sunday Times )

'Bold, vigorous and extremely funny.'

(Evening Standard )

'I think it's very good'

(John Sutherland, 'Front Row', BBC Radio 4 )

'A formidably sophisticated work of fiction, full of energy, rage and great humour. All the qualities for which le Carre's fiction has been admired - his descriptive powers, his electrifying dialogue, his cynicism in the presence of coporate greed and government power - are visible in THE MISSION SONG. That this great English novelist continues to produce work of this calibre with such frequency is simply astonishing.'

(Charles Cumming, Mail on Sunday )

Evening Standard
'Bold, vigorous and extremely funny.'

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Customer Reviews

Entertaining Thriller about Corruption and Naiveté
Bruno Salvador, the narrator and protagonist of THE MISSION SONG, is an interpreter, fluent in numerous African languages, who usually works for hospitals or corporations in London. But on a special freelance job, he learns of a plot to overthrow the government in the Eastern Congo. Salvo believes that this plot, which is driven by Western greed and enabled by corrupt African politicians and warlords, will only produce more anarchy and death in this region. Further, he is outraged by the venality of this scheme, which rips off the area's beleaguered African citizens. In this seamless and exciting novel, Le Carre shows Salvo, a naïve idealist, courageously maneuvering to defeat this scheme.

THE MISSION SONG is a fun and involving read with the careerist Salvo facing a corrupt, ruthless, and nameless syndicate that has both the will and know-how to obliterate him. As is common in Le Carre's recent novels, a question posed by this protagonist is: Can the actions of a brave idealistic amateur make a difference?

Over the years, I've read many Le Carre novels. At their best, these feature rich irony, surprising plots, and sardonic humor. While THE MISSION SONG is strong in these qualities, it also does two things very well that reviewers often overlook in Le Carre.

First, Le Carre is terrific when he writes about meetings. Meetings, as we all know, lack narrative drive and are frequently aggravating, diffuse, and time wasting. But in Le Carre, a meeting is a riveting plot point in which the pace is taut and the interaction is fascinating on many levels. This special talent brings Le Carre inside modern experience like few contemporary writers.

Second, Le Carre is a considerate narrator who creates moments when characters, without breaking the flow, summarize the plot. In THE MISSION SONG, this keeps a complex story from becoming vague. Yes, this is hand-holding for lazy readers. But this is also Le Carre's adjustment to readers like me, who have time to read only a few chapters every day and need plot summaries to re-enter the story.

Thanks for everything, John.

Little action and rather introspective
I'm no expert on Le Carre, but The Mission Song does seem to struggle to pull a novel out of very thin ideas.

The star of the piece is Salvo, a mixed race translator. The first third of the book sets out some of his background. The middle third follows Salvo translating at a mysterious hot-house negotiation on the future of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The final third presents the aftereffects of that negotiation. In theory, this is jolly good.

But the truth is, Salvo is a rather self-absorbed individual who seems unable to maintain relationships with others - whether romantic, social or contractual. Moreover, interpreting is a rather mechanical process. There is vicarious interest in the subject matter being translated, but the process itself is mundane - even if it is being done in varying degrees of clandestineness. So we have a large cast of characters who brush up against Salvo - none of them deeper than a sheet of veneer - and quite a bit of technical explanation of the process of translating. Along with some token attempt to create a passion for an African heritage.

The negotiations are supposed to be key to the plot. But the setting (chiefly a table in a house on a no-name island) offers limited scope for action. Moreover, without background knowledge of Congolese politics, the characters are hard to tell apart - despite being given very different body shapes, dress styles, and a handy limp. And the revelation that the multinational corporations did not have entirely benevolent motives was an outcome that would not surprise a schoolboy. Thus, getting to the end of the negotiation meeting is rather a slow and claustrophobic process.

The final third does pick up and offer a bit of intrigue, but it is hardly on a par with Le Carre's cold war classics. And the eventual outcome - although similar to many of Le Carre's endings - results in the merest shrug of the shoulders. The truth is, Salvo was not engaging enough for the reader to care much about his ultimate destiny.

Three stars for the latter third - and partly in deference to Le Carre's reputation. But this really isn't a classic spy story, and neither is it engaging enough as a personal drama. Just rather introspective.

John le Carré - Up-to-date and at His Best
The elections in the Congo haven't been long ago, in "The Mission Song" these elections play a major role, you could call them the background for this book. This use of current affairs as a background make "The Mission Song" a really up-to-date work. And although it's just a work of fiction you can learn a lot about the Congo, the people, the natural resources there and the struggle about them. But it's not only about the Congo, many of the truths in that book can be applied to wider regions of Africa.
The book is about the hypocrisy with which the Western world treats Africa. It's also about the hypocrisy of political representatives towards the people they represent. It's about the hypocrisy of the ruling class towards the rest of the people - all over the world. Revealing this hypocrisy in so many different aspects makes this book a real masterpiece - it's John le Carré at his best!
Well, you might want to argue that's the book is just a piece of fiction. In the real world, highly respected persons wouldn't be involved in such a scam. If you do believe that then you should also read the book "The Wonga Coup" by Adam Roberts. This book will show you that the real work is even worse than the fictional world in John le Carré's books.