Product Description

A half-starved young Russian man in a long black overcoat is smuggled into Hamburg at dead of night. He has an improbable amount of cash secreted in a purse round his neck. He is a devout Muslim. Or is he? He says his name is Issa.

Annabel, an idealistic young German civil rights lawyer, determines to save Issa from deportation. Soon her client’s survival becomes more important to her than her own career. In pursuit of Issa’s mysterious past, she confronts the incongruous Tommy Brue, the sixty-year-old scion of Brue Frères, a failing British bank based in Hamburg.

A triangle of impossible loves is born.

Meanwhile, scenting a sure kill in the so-called War on Terror, the spies of three nations converge upon the innocents.

Poignant, compassionate, peopled with characters the reader never wants to let go, A MOST WANTED MAN is alive with humour, yet prickles with tension until the last heart-stopping page. It is also a work of deep humanity, and uncommon relevance to our times.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4482 in Books
• Published on: 2009-06-25
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 432 pages

Review
'One of the most sophisticated fictional responses to the war on terror yet published.' ( Guardian )

'A first-class novel about the most pressing moral and political concerns of our time.' ( Telegraph )

'le Carré is back on form in a cracking terror plot.' ( Daily Express )

'Wry, warm, compassionate.' ( The Times )

'A cautionary tale, rich in humanity, from a master storyteller back at the peak of his powers.' ( Glasgow Herald )

'This is bleak, brilliant, hypnotic stuff and yet another reason to count le Carré among this country's very finest contemporary writers. Unhesitatingly recommended.' ( Independent on Sunday )

Observer on The Mission Song
'Le Carré'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.'

Spectator
'Le Carré shows no sign of slowing up or losing touch.'

Customer Reviews

The Return of the Master
Unbelievable to think it now, but the feeling a few years ago was that Le Carre and his fellow spy writers would struggle for storylines with the collapse of communism and the end of the Cold War. But the numerous civil wars around the world, particularly in Africa and Asia, and the west's War on Terror have proven a most fertile ground for new plots.

All the action in `A Most Wanted Man' takes place in Hamburg, where an emaciated, illegal Chechen muslim immigrant, Issa Karpov, persuades a Turkish mother and son to take him in after following the son around for a few days.

Issa bears all the signs of having recently been tortured and he's a wanted man both in Sweden (from where he was smuggled in) and his homeland. Helped by human rights lawyer Annabel Richter, and Tommy Brue, a Scottish private banker who operates in the city, he apparently wishes only to qualify as a doctor to help those back home. He appears to be the son of a deceased Russian gangster, who opened an illegal account (a `Lipizzaner' - like the horse) with Tommy Brue's father back in Vienna before the bank relocated. And now Issa wishes to use that 'bad' money (some $12.5m) for the greater good. The German, British and American secret services are aware of him and in turn, wish to use HIM as bait to capture a bigger prize...

The plot is as complex as we've come to expect from the grand old man, and the humour just as sly and knowing. The motives of the leading players are deliberately hidden and almost right up until the very last page we're clueless as to how it will all end up.

He's great at portraying the duplicity, triplicity and even quadriplicity (I almost certainly made at least one of these words up!) in the spy world, and how no one can be taken at face value. Here the German, British and American spooks seem to reach an uneasy agreement on how to best exploit the position, but they're all still fighting their own corner and have very differing motives.

Let's talk about the prose quality: no other espionage writer comes close to matching the style, wit and erudition of Le Carre. He's 77 years old this year, but still very much the master craftsman, creating a mood or conjuring up a location with just a few carefully chosen words.

Stella Rimmington, ex-MI5 chief-turned novelist recently had a go at this new Le Carre novel in the Daily Mail, praising his 'readability' and writing style (she could hardly do anything else) but giving him only four out of ten for realism. Well nuts to you Ms Rimmington, I'm not particularly bothered if the old boy's grasp of modern secret service protocol and/or operating methods are a bit outmoded. This is how I want my Le Carre to be - old school - and proud of it - but still with a finger on the pulse of modern issues. I've never read any of your novels but I suspect you won't be praised and still read in fifty years time like this guy.

It's not `The Spy Who Came in From the Cold', but it is still great entertainment. Few fans will be disappointed with this. David John Cornwell, we salute you!

Espionage through the eyes of the Master
Afficiandos of the John le Carre spy novel come in at least three basic types. There are many who savor a contemporary, stylish and intriguing plot with fully drawn (and inevitably fallible) characters. There are those who simply appreciate good writing. And then some who expect both.

None will be disappointed by A Most Wanted Man.

In this, his 21st novel, Le Carre returns to his roots: to a post-Cold War Germany and the internecine warfare of competing intelligence agencies (both domestic and international), balancing the conflicting consequences of illegal immigration, religion and the War on Terror.

Le Carre's unique literary style - long, complex, descriptive word paintings (the antithesis of modern, crisp journalism and airport potboiler novels) - draws the reader in from the first page. All his characters, whether principal players or bit parts, emerge fully rounded in all their capabilities and flaws. Each is human, realistic and memorable.

The plot is tantalising. Who is "this most wanted man"? Whom are we to like? Whom to trust? Apparently innocent bystanders, struggling to survive in the new Europe and wanting to believe in their future, are drawn into the action and suffer collateral damage in a contest that is superficially about terrorism but in reality between competing, morally corrupt intelligence agencies - the cream of the espiocracy.

Le Carre slowly, carefully unpeels his onion, layer by layer, to expose its inevitable, venal core. However in his world of deceit, disillusion and bureaucratic testosterone there are ultimately no winners, no solutions, no happy endings. Le Carre's world is not like that.

Old Wine in a New Bottle
Do not make the mistake of starting John le Carré's latest espionage novel, "A Most Wanted Man," when you have a list of pressing errands or household duties, because once you have read one page, you will read another, and another, and yet another; and before you know it, you will be so thoroughly absorbed in the author's tangled web of international intrigue that your letters will remain unposted; your floors will remain unswept; and your list, which you thought so important before you began the book, will seem irrelevant.

Set in today's polyglot German port-city of Hamburg, the novel focuses on three people whose lives are turned upside down by what the author terms the modern "espionocracy"--the oligarchs of espionage, who play the same old games, even though in the post-911 world, the rules have been changed beyond recognition (and the villains of the piece are not who you might think). As usual, the author takes his characters and his prose beyond the threshold of the conventional thriller, injecting the former with charm and the latter with humor that sometimes emerges surprisingly in delightful similes. Behind his fictional world lie serious issues, such as the counter-productivity caused by the conflicting agendas of various espionage agencies that are supposed to be working together. In less skilled hands, such themes might intrude on the novel, but Le Carré remains focused on his riveting plot.

So cancel all appointments for the weekend; forget about those pesky cobwebs in the corner; turn off all technological devices; curl up in a comfortable chair, and enjoy John le Carré's latest gripping tale of espionage. And even though you will want to speed-read to the end (as the author tightens the threads of his narrative almost to the breaking point), take your time; put the book down once in a while; think about it; pick it up again; savor it. You will find the experience most satisfying, and while you will certainly be sorry when Le Carré's narrative bottle is empty, the memory of its rich contents will linger on your palate like a vintage wine after you have, regretfully, closed the book for the last time.