A Most Wanted Man (Hardcover)

by John le Carre (Author)

A Most Wanted Man

Review
“Le Carré’s … secret agents exist in a world of stalemate, moral compromise, ambiguity and betrayal… Like his books, le Carré is a mix of unblinking realism and hopeful humanism.”– Jill Lawless, Associated Press

“What le Carré has always done terrifically is to capture the nuances of the spying game. His spooks are wonderful… In A Most Wanted Man you are, unlike the modern world, in thrillingly deft, safe hands.”– The Guadian (UK)

“Highly recommended.”– Library Journal

“During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.” , September 18, 2008
By Leonard Fleisig “Len (Washington, D.C.)

With the possible exception of one young German lawyer there are no revolutionary acts in John Le Carre’s “A Most Wanted Man”. Rather, we have high-level functionaries from German, British, and US intelligence agencies for whom deceit is the norm and truth plays, at best, a secondary role in acting in what is or may be in each country’s national interest. In tone and substance this is not much different from Le Carre’s Cold War fiction. The trick is to see whether the same cynical realism plays as well in today’s `war on terror’. Le Carre’s transition from the Cold War to the brave new world post-9/11 is excellent. The result is a book that is dark, cynical, and almost as rewarding as the best of Le Carre’s earlier fiction.

The most wanted man in question is Issa. Issa is the product of the rape of a Chechnyan woman by a Red Army Colonel stationed in Chechnya. Raised by his father in Russia, Issa flees to the west after his father dies. Issa finds his way to Hamburg and despite his famished look it appears that Issa has connection to money and influence. He is also, apparently, a Muslim and because of his Chechnyan heritage he is identified by Russian intelligence agencies as a suspected terrorist. German, US, and British intelligence agencies based in Hamburg quickly identify him as a person of interest. The other main protagonists are Annabel Richter and Tommy Brue. Richter is a newly qualified attorney who has foregone work in private practice to work for a German civil rights organization created to assist immigrants and refugees in normalizing their status in Germany. Brue is a private banker whose bank is the depository of the significant funds Issa may lay claim to.

Le Carre does a wonderful job portraying Issa, Richter, and Brue. Issa is a total cipher. He has a naïve innocence about him (think of Chance from Jerzy Kosinki’s Being There) that takes the reader in one direction in assessing his motives and the real reason for his presence in Germany. Yet there are enough anomalies and discrepancies in his story and in his remarks to Richter and Brue that make you go, “hold on a moment, there’s more here than meets the eye.” Richter is something of a naif, her idealism tends to obscure her ability to cast a truly critical eye over the gaps in Issa’s story.

Tennyson once wrote:

“That a lie which is half a truth is ever the blackest of lies;
That a lie which is all a lie may be met and fought with outright;
But a lie which is part a truth is a harder matter to fight.”

Le Carre writes with exquisite precision and insight about a world in which truth is not a matter worth fighting for. Highly recommended. L. Fleisig