Product Description

He was dragged from the sea, his body riddled with bullets. There are a few clues: a frame of microfilm surgically implanted beneath the skin of his hip; evidence that plastic surgery has altered his face; strange things he says in his delirium, which could be code words. And a number on the film negative that leads to a bank account in Zurich, four million dollars, and a name for the amnesiac: Jason Bourne. Now he is running for his life. A man with an unknown past and an uncertain future, the target of assassins and at the heart of a deadly puzzle. He's fighting for survival and no one can help him - except the one woman who once wanted to escape him . . .

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #23989 in Books
• Published on: 2004-05-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 544 pages

Time Magazine
‘Always absorbing … His characters are complex and credible, his sleight of plot as cunning as any terrorist conspiracy … ’

Review
"Probably the best modern spy thriller I have ever read. I love Ludlum's stuff because he challenges you from the first page." -- Pete Waterman (DAILY EXPRESS )

About the Author
After a successful career in the theatre, Robert Ludlum launched his career as a bestselling writer with THE SCARLATTI INHERITANCE in 1971, the first of 22 consecutive international bestsellers. Robert sadly passed away in March 2001.

Customer Reviews

The Bourne Identity
Gripping and thought-provoking thriller, but only if you like to think! Mindless readers should not attempt this intricate story of an amnesiac who tracks down his own history from clues he doesn't even realise he's picked up, efficiently surviving asassination attempts without knowing why "they" are out to get him, or how he acquired these deadly skills. Those who found the film differing wildly from the plot of the book should track down the original film starring Richard Chamberlain and Jaclyn Smith, far superior to the latest Matt Damon scramble.

This is how a thriller should read
There is a cliché that says a book is a real page turner and it certainly applies to this book. I picked it up because I loved the film and I imagined the book would be just as good. The novel, however, leaves the film standing. Don't expect a movie tie-in because this is certainly not that. Jason Bourne is found floating in the ocean and that's about where the similarity starts and finishes. Some great scenes in Zurich and Paris are the only other resemblances to the film.

I'd never read a Robert Ludlum book before but this has me searching for the next. It's written at a pace that keeps you hooked, the story is much more complex than the film and the characterisation and plot is a joy to read. I was hooked to the very last page.

On the downside, if you have seen the film one of the crucial story twists is known to you. If you haven't seen the movie - read the book first for this is how a thriller should read.

This book makes the film a painful experience...
I too, like many people have offered reviews, saw the film before i read the book. After being pleasantly satisfied with what hollywood had to offer i was sceptical as to what the book could offer that the film hadn't already...

It took only the first few chapters for that scepticism to wash away, much like Bourne's limp body in the opening of both book and film. This book offer's more depth, twists, morale dilemmas, teasing questions, and surprising answers than the film could ever have done, even if it were to run for abother 10 hours. I ask you, in dilluded confusion, where was Carlos in the film? The most gripping, intriguing and heartwarming elements of the story are elated from the film for absolutely no reason!
"Bourne's" history is, in itself an intruguin story of loss and dealing with it, and the knock on effect leading to the pier in Marsaille is just bewildering.
The depth and detail of which Ludlum presents for Carlos' army of old men, and the tedious encounters around the analyst's conference room in the 'mighty' USA CIA headquarters, lend a delightful and delicate intricacy to a world unknown to all that read. Every strategic decision Bourne makes, based on his training, lends a new dimension to the stereotpyically 'Muscle-bound' world, that we so readily associate (through hollywood, i presume) to a spy.

Now for my complaints, of which i only have one:
Ludlum hints at the identity of a 'certain character' to be significant and, at the very least, surprising... Why was this abandoned?
Ludlum is, without doubt, the most accomplished Spy thriller writer of this century, and The Bourne Identity is his finest work.