Product Description

Samira and Yasin, orphaned when they were eight years old, were adopted by Malaysian millionaire Ismael Musa. They grow up in a world of wealth and privilege but the seeds of hatred, sown when they were children, are about to reap a terrible harvest.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1215907 in Books
• Published on: 2000-03-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
If Humphrey Hawksley's name is familiar, it's probably as a BBC Foreign Affairs correspondent, shouting over the gunfire in Kosovo or Iraq. But with Absolute Measures, his second novel, Hawksley's name may register on the bookshelves. An SAS raid on a house outside Khartoum leaves 13-year-old Sudanese twins Yasin and Samira Omer orphans. Yasin knows that the Englishman Tim Park, supposedly an archaeology student, must have had something to do with it, but inexplicably passes up the chance to incriminate him. Five years later, adopted by the rich and mysterious Abu Musa, Yasin and Samira find themselves caught up in the violent politics of Zamboanga in the Southern Philippines and inexorably drawn back towards Tim Park...

Hawksley is no literary stylist,and his novel is stuffed with the kind of sultry child-women, amoral heroes and evil terror-brokers that seem to draw breath only in thrillers. But his quick-fire, fact- filled staccato sentences pump up the pace and the complex politics and exotic locations--Beijing, London, Manila, Sri Lanka, Budapest, Kharachi, Vlissingen--suggest an informed familiarity with the secret intricacies of international espionage. This is the low-down on Foreign Affairs which won't make the Nine O'Clock News. --Alan Stewart

Customer Reviews

Humphrey Hawksley has redefined a genre.
Absolute Measures is an extraordinary political thriller. The character of developing countries, their terrorism, their religion, their aspirations, that have been made so one dimensional in the western media, have real form in this book. The author is obviously writing from his own experiences of many real events.

He seems able to combine compassion for the people of emerging countries with a deep understanding of the ruthlessness of the conflicts within their own and with the developed world. This is not a simple tale populated by cold war stereotypes and evil fundamentalists. The book is unsettling because the people are very real and the events are quite plausible. Hawksley is better than Tom Clancy and describes our age as John Buchan and Graham Green did theirs. A map showing the key places in the story would have helped, particularly as the events cover half the world. Nonetheless, Humphrey Hawksley has redefined a genre.

a terrifyingly plausible scenario
This novel is one of the scariest and most terrifyingly plausible thrillers I've read in a long time. What makes it work so brilliantly is the fact that the central idea - of a lone terrorist managing to put a knife at the world's throat - is completely believable. It's also very much a theme of today's world, and I have a horrible feeling it's only a matter of time before some of the things Hawksley predicts - in particular the iron grip that fanaticism can have on an individual's damaged psyche, and the fallout from that - come true. This novel really is a must-read for anyone who follows the news, and enjoys a first-class thriller.

Compelling geo-political thriller. A warning to the West.
Absolute Measures improves on a second reading. The complex plot involving disenchanted young intellectuals whose countries have been exploited by the West / USA and have left them alienated and bent on revenge. The threading together of personal hatreds with wider political movements is cleverly done and gives a realistic explanation of many modern terrorist attrocities.

Hawksley has taken a live geo-political situation which exists now in the Far East , Pakistan and Eastern Europe and has woven a plausible yet horrific story about what easily could happen in the year 2000. The drawing of characters is strong and although the climax is similar to that of many thrillers, the story retains a haunting coherence throughout. This is a book waiting to be filmed and brought to a wider audience.