What do you think?
Rate this book
A Most Wanted Man
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 around 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—or safety. 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.
Annabel, Issa, and Brue form an unlikely alliance—and a triangle of impossible loves is born. Meanwhile, sensing a sure kill in the “War on Terror,” the rival spies of Germany, England, and America converge upon the innocents.
Thrilling, compassionate, with characters you’ll never forget, A Most Wanted Man is a work of deep humanity and uncommon relevance to our times.
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—or safety. 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.
Annabel, Issa, and Brue form an unlikely alliance—and a triangle of impossible loves is born. Meanwhile, sensing a sure kill in the “War on Terror,” the rival spies of Germany, England, and America converge upon the innocents.
Thrilling, compassionate, with characters you’ll never forget, A Most Wanted Man is a work of deep humanity and uncommon relevance to our times.
323 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2008
About the author
John le Carré
366 books9,916 followersJohn le Carré, the pseudonym of David John Moore Cornwell (born 19 October 1931 in Poole, Dorset, England), was an English author of espionage novels. Le Carré had resided in St Buryan, Cornwall, Great Britain, for more than 40 years, where he owned a mile of cliff close to Land's End.
Le Carré died at Royal Cornwall Hospital, Truro, on 12 December 2020, aged 89. An inquest completed in June 2021 concluded that le Carré died after sustaining a fall at his home.
abridged from Wikipedia
Le Carré died at Royal Cornwall Hospital, Truro, on 12 December 2020, aged 89. An inquest completed in June 2021 concluded that le Carré died after sustaining a fall at his home.
abridged from Wikipedia
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,455 reviews
August 24, 2009
(John le Carré died at age 89 in 2020 - image from TheArtsDesk.com
A young Muslim man or uncertain origin, scarred from extensive torture, finds his way into Hamburg and inquires into a large account, set up by his father, held in a private bank. A middle-aged banker reawakens to the existence of certain “special” accounts set up during the cold war by people of questionable repute, stowing ill-gotten money. An idealistic young lawyer tries to see that her client, the Muslim, is able to fulfill his financial desires.
Le Carré walks us through the details of how sundry intelligence agencies might exploit a delicate situation for their own purposes, seeing it through their individual lenses. The reality almost ceases to have meaning in the face of political demands. He takes us into the minds of the principals and shows step by step how people of strong moral fiber can be used to a dark purpose. And how honesty can be turned into a tool of betrayal. There is a larger political context here, the War on Terror, and Le Carré raises questions about how to balance what good people do in the world against the bad. It is no Tinker Tailor, but this is an intriguing, thoughtful work, a grownup look at a sometimes childish worldview.
Published - October 7, 2008
Review originally posted sometime in 2009
=============================EXTRA STUFF
Links to the author’s personal and FB pages. While there is plenty of information at these, do not expect to interact with the writer. He has passed that task on to his staff, the better to concentrate his efforts on writing his next book.
A 2014 David Denby article in The New Yorker - WHICH IS THE BEST JOHN LE CARRÉ NOVEL? - definitely worth a look
George Plimpton interviewed JlC for The Paris Review in 1997. It is delicious.
August 25, 2017 - NY Times - A fun read. Macintyre is also a former spook of a writer. - Spies Like Us: A Conversation With John le Carré and Ben Macintyre - by Sarah Lyallaug
Although I have read a fair number of JlCs books, and seen films for some of the books I have missed, I have read and reviewed only one during my years on GR, The Pigeon Tunnel
October 11, 2019 - The Guardian - 'My ties to England have loosened': John le Carré on Britain, Boris and Brexit - by John Banville
November 22, 2013
I still haven't figured out what it is that makes me like John le Carre's works. I mean, he's the only one among my favourite authors whose books are more than often overflowing with excruciating & tireless amount of detail & the writing verging on being boring & tedious at times. And yet, when I get to the end of it, it all seems worth the effort. (Okay, maybe not The Russia House. I didn't like that one very much.)
And then Le Carre surprises me by something like 'A Most Wanted Man', that seems to carry none of the aforementioned traits.
The story starts with a man smuggling himself into Hamburg & seeking refuge with a Turkish family. He speaks no German & he claims to be from Chechnya. He has alleged militant connections, a large sum in a bank account awaiting him as inheritance & has been tortured extensively. He is a devout Muslim & his name is Issa, or so he says.
Afraid of his illegality as well as concerned for his failing health, those harbouring him contact Annabel Richter, a young lawyer at Sanctuary North, a charitable organisation. She takes on the case to ward off past demons, but soon his survival becomes more important than her own career. In the middle of all this is Tommy Brue, the sixty-year-old chairman of a British bank based in Hamburg.
As the three make a connection, they are all deemed as suspects in the 'War on Terror' by intelligence agencies. What ensues forms the crux of the plot.
Though I cannot really claim to have read all his works, I have not encountered a Le Carre novel before with so much dialogue. And to the delight of the reader, it is the strongest aspect of this book. The conversations are delightful & drive the story forward astutely.
The characterisation is competent as is the norm in Le Carre's novels, be it the protagonists, the 'good' spy Gunther Bachmann & his right-hand Erna Frey, the Muslim cleric Dr. Abdullah or the American intelligence operative Martha Sullivan. (John le Carre hates Americans & their policies. Or that's what his recent novels imply.)
Even the love angle between the protagonists, though seemingly implausible at first, slowly weaves its way into the story as it is a dignified kind of love, one that is motivated not by self-interest but by the need to serve a higher cause.
'A Most Wanted Man' is in line with the trend of Le Carre's pessimism & sense of doom regarding the West (esp. the Bush-Blair era) that has been ongoing since the brilliant 'The Constant Gardener' & continued in the tragicomic 'Absolute Friends'. In fact, one could say it surpasses both works on that count, for one feels engulfed by this sense of sadness on finishing this book.
The instance of Issa being branded a possible terrorist on account of his nationality & religion reminds me of this Hindi song called 'Panchhi Nadiyan' penned by lyricist Javed Akhtar, which talks of a world where identities of men are defined by the borders behind which they live. I quote a few lines -
Panchhi nadiyan pawan ke jhonke
Koi sarhad naa inhein roke
Sarhadein insaano ke liye hain
Socho tumne aur maine
Kya paaya insaan hoke
Which translates into -
Birds, rivers and gusts of wind
No border can halt them
Borders are for us humans
Wonder what you and I
Have achieved by being human
(Pardon me for a literal translation, for I'm no poet.)
I'm going for 4.5 to 5 stars for 'A Most Wanted Man' by John le Carre. Brimming with tension till the final page, this is a book that only reaffirms that even in the post-Cold War era, Le Carre's ability to write books that are deeply relevant with the times is unparalleled, perhaps matched by only a select few. Highly recommended.
P.S. 'A Most Wanted Man' has been adapted to film & is apparently set to release next year. Directed by Anton Corbjin, the movie stars Rachel McAdams, Phillip Seymour-Hoffman, Robin Wright & Willem Dafoe. One to watch out for, I'd say.
And then Le Carre surprises me by something like 'A Most Wanted Man', that seems to carry none of the aforementioned traits.
The story starts with a man smuggling himself into Hamburg & seeking refuge with a Turkish family. He speaks no German & he claims to be from Chechnya. He has alleged militant connections, a large sum in a bank account awaiting him as inheritance & has been tortured extensively. He is a devout Muslim & his name is Issa, or so he says.
Afraid of his illegality as well as concerned for his failing health, those harbouring him contact Annabel Richter, a young lawyer at Sanctuary North, a charitable organisation. She takes on the case to ward off past demons, but soon his survival becomes more important than her own career. In the middle of all this is Tommy Brue, the sixty-year-old chairman of a British bank based in Hamburg.
As the three make a connection, they are all deemed as suspects in the 'War on Terror' by intelligence agencies. What ensues forms the crux of the plot.
Though I cannot really claim to have read all his works, I have not encountered a Le Carre novel before with so much dialogue. And to the delight of the reader, it is the strongest aspect of this book. The conversations are delightful & drive the story forward astutely.
The characterisation is competent as is the norm in Le Carre's novels, be it the protagonists, the 'good' spy Gunther Bachmann & his right-hand Erna Frey, the Muslim cleric Dr. Abdullah or the American intelligence operative Martha Sullivan. (John le Carre hates Americans & their policies. Or that's what his recent novels imply.)
Even the love angle between the protagonists, though seemingly implausible at first, slowly weaves its way into the story as it is a dignified kind of love, one that is motivated not by self-interest but by the need to serve a higher cause.
'A Most Wanted Man' is in line with the trend of Le Carre's pessimism & sense of doom regarding the West (esp. the Bush-Blair era) that has been ongoing since the brilliant 'The Constant Gardener' & continued in the tragicomic 'Absolute Friends'. In fact, one could say it surpasses both works on that count, for one feels engulfed by this sense of sadness on finishing this book.
The instance of Issa being branded a possible terrorist on account of his nationality & religion reminds me of this Hindi song called 'Panchhi Nadiyan' penned by lyricist Javed Akhtar, which talks of a world where identities of men are defined by the borders behind which they live. I quote a few lines -
Panchhi nadiyan pawan ke jhonke
Koi sarhad naa inhein roke
Sarhadein insaano ke liye hain
Socho tumne aur maine
Kya paaya insaan hoke
Which translates into -
Birds, rivers and gusts of wind
No border can halt them
Borders are for us humans
Wonder what you and I
Have achieved by being human
(Pardon me for a literal translation, for I'm no poet.)
I'm going for 4.5 to 5 stars for 'A Most Wanted Man' by John le Carre. Brimming with tension till the final page, this is a book that only reaffirms that even in the post-Cold War era, Le Carre's ability to write books that are deeply relevant with the times is unparalleled, perhaps matched by only a select few. Highly recommended.
P.S. 'A Most Wanted Man' has been adapted to film & is apparently set to release next year. Directed by Anton Corbjin, the movie stars Rachel McAdams, Phillip Seymour-Hoffman, Robin Wright & Willem Dafoe. One to watch out for, I'd say.
June 29, 2013
“The fact that you can only do a little is no excuse for doing nothing.”
― John le Carré, A Most Wanted Man
A post-9/11 Hamburg spy novel filled with all the key post-9/11 le Carré signposts: bureaucratic turf wars, moral ambiguities, innocents caught in the web of a 'war on terror', reckless acts, money, and a general loss of innocence. le Carré, with this novel, is really starting to not pull his punches with the West.
There are two broad phases of le Carré's spy novels. There are his early, cold war spy novels and his later, post-cold war spy novels. 'A Most Wanted Man' is obviously part of the later cycle, but within that cycle you've got several ('Absolute Friends', 'A Most Wanted Man', 'Our Kind of Traitor', 'A Delicate Truth') that deal specifically with the post 9/11 world of extraordinary rendition, torture, detention, etc.
It isn't a perfect novel, and unfortunately, the War on Terror made this novel fairly predictable. It isn't top shelf le Carré, but it is still fascinating, angry and worldly-wise in its ability to portray the cost and the complexities of the global War on Terror. le Carré is a master at exposing the cost to individuals, organizations, and countries of extracting the 5% bad from the 95% good. If you imperiously kill the patient just to remove the cancer, who benefits? The woman selling you the scalpel and the man digging plots.
― John le Carré, A Most Wanted Man
A post-9/11 Hamburg spy novel filled with all the key post-9/11 le Carré signposts: bureaucratic turf wars, moral ambiguities, innocents caught in the web of a 'war on terror', reckless acts, money, and a general loss of innocence. le Carré, with this novel, is really starting to not pull his punches with the West.
There are two broad phases of le Carré's spy novels. There are his early, cold war spy novels and his later, post-cold war spy novels. 'A Most Wanted Man' is obviously part of the later cycle, but within that cycle you've got several ('Absolute Friends', 'A Most Wanted Man', 'Our Kind of Traitor', 'A Delicate Truth') that deal specifically with the post 9/11 world of extraordinary rendition, torture, detention, etc.
It isn't a perfect novel, and unfortunately, the War on Terror made this novel fairly predictable. It isn't top shelf le Carré, but it is still fascinating, angry and worldly-wise in its ability to portray the cost and the complexities of the global War on Terror. le Carré is a master at exposing the cost to individuals, organizations, and countries of extracting the 5% bad from the 95% good. If you imperiously kill the patient just to remove the cancer, who benefits? The woman selling you the scalpel and the man digging plots.
October 17, 2023
2 stars
Review for the German abridged audio book.
short review for busy readers: Skip. Le Carre has better books than this, which largely amounts to an opinion editorial in story form.
(Here's the opinion: the War on Terror is being badly managed and causing huge collateral damage because the American side, who were merely aggressive and annoying before, are now aggressive, annoying AND have gone utterly mental.)
In detail:
I normally find Le Carre unbearably slow and overly detailed in parts, and he is here, too. 90% of the story is the characters jockeying for position for the final 10%, when the action and tension FINALLY arrives. And it's a fantastic last 10%! Super, two thumbs up! (If we could just skip what came before)
I'm totally okay with unlikeable characters, but when you want to actively strangle the guy I think you're supposed to feel sorry for (?) and throw him into the Hamburg Alster, then bitch-slap the rest of the characters into next week...well, doesn't make for a pleasant read/listen.
There is only one character I found at all realistic (the Turkish mother), the rest are standard issue Le Carre spooks and business people.
With me, the message is rather preaching to the choir, so I wasn't moved or impressed, I just nodded and said, "what do you expect?" I might guess John just wanted to wade in with his opinion on the subject, or too many people were asking him what he thought of the American War on Terror, and this was his rather bland answer: it's cobblers.
Not recommended. And the audio is not read very well, either.
Review for the German abridged audio book.
short review for busy readers: Skip. Le Carre has better books than this, which largely amounts to an opinion editorial in story form.
(Here's the opinion: the War on Terror is being badly managed and causing huge collateral damage because the American side, who were merely aggressive and annoying before, are now aggressive, annoying AND have gone utterly mental.)
In detail:
I normally find Le Carre unbearably slow and overly detailed in parts, and he is here, too. 90% of the story is the characters jockeying for position for the final 10%, when the action and tension FINALLY arrives. And it's a fantastic last 10%! Super, two thumbs up! (If we could just skip what came before)
I'm totally okay with unlikeable characters, but when you want to actively strangle the guy I think you're supposed to feel sorry for (?) and throw him into the Hamburg Alster, then bitch-slap the rest of the characters into next week...well, doesn't make for a pleasant read/listen.
There is only one character I found at all realistic (the Turkish mother), the rest are standard issue Le Carre spooks and business people.
With me, the message is rather preaching to the choir, so I wasn't moved or impressed, I just nodded and said, "what do you expect?" I might guess John just wanted to wade in with his opinion on the subject, or too many people were asking him what he thought of the American War on Terror, and this was his rather bland answer: it's cobblers.
Not recommended. And the audio is not read very well, either.
October 20, 2008
I feel like John le Carre is thought of as the grand old man of spy fiction. But his books really aren't what I tend to think of when I think of spy novels--they're always about world-weary bureaucrats doing grubby things that they know better than to be doing, about sad beat-up men whose best efforts generally just bring them, and everyone around them, more sadness. No high-tech gadgets or thrilling derring-do here--just an unhappy story with an unhappy ending. But gorgeously written.
July 5, 2023
Whenever his book was made into a movie, I always wanted to read the book first, and this is what led me here.
I am finally bringing my review to Goodreads.
Premise: This book takes place in Germany, and has 3 primary POV’s, though Le Carre adds a few more later. The central protagonist is Issa Karpov, the son of a Russian war criminal and his Chechen “war bride.”
Issa claims to have been tortured in prison. He now appears to readers as a traumatized refugee in Hamburg being sheltered by a couple of frightened Turkish immigrants. He seeks help from Annabel, a German civil rights attorney, who is sympathetic to his story, and attracted to him, as well.
Issa leads her to Tommy Brue, a British banker, whose bank stashed his father’s fortune. Annabel seeks him out. Issa says he wants to become a doctor. Brue also wants to help Issa out, because he finds himself attracted to Annabel.
Although it appears like a potential love triangle, nothing more than touching hands occurs.
Apparently, as Annabel and Tommy attempt to help Issa, the Germans, the British and the Americans all want a piece of him.
Why?
The author appears to be doing a critique on the war on terror, but if that is all readers see, then the point is missed.
Issa can be any stateless individual from the wrong place with the wrong background. No one really cares about his religion, only what he knows and who he knows.
Le Carre does a good job of not being too preachy, but if he was attempting suspense, he failed at it. The story line is rather predictable.
Still…The author attempts to write a complicated and compelling story. This isn’t necessarily a spy thriller, as the spies take a background seat, and the civilians take center stage.
What we have here are grubby, believable, morally compromised protagonists.
The question then becomes…
Which was better – the book or the movie?
I am finally bringing my review to Goodreads.
Premise: This book takes place in Germany, and has 3 primary POV’s, though Le Carre adds a few more later. The central protagonist is Issa Karpov, the son of a Russian war criminal and his Chechen “war bride.”
Issa claims to have been tortured in prison. He now appears to readers as a traumatized refugee in Hamburg being sheltered by a couple of frightened Turkish immigrants. He seeks help from Annabel, a German civil rights attorney, who is sympathetic to his story, and attracted to him, as well.
Issa leads her to Tommy Brue, a British banker, whose bank stashed his father’s fortune. Annabel seeks him out. Issa says he wants to become a doctor. Brue also wants to help Issa out, because he finds himself attracted to Annabel.
Although it appears like a potential love triangle, nothing more than touching hands occurs.
Apparently, as Annabel and Tommy attempt to help Issa, the Germans, the British and the Americans all want a piece of him.
Why?
The author appears to be doing a critique on the war on terror, but if that is all readers see, then the point is missed.
Issa can be any stateless individual from the wrong place with the wrong background. No one really cares about his religion, only what he knows and who he knows.
Le Carre does a good job of not being too preachy, but if he was attempting suspense, he failed at it. The story line is rather predictable.
Still…The author attempts to write a complicated and compelling story. This isn’t necessarily a spy thriller, as the spies take a background seat, and the civilians take center stage.
What we have here are grubby, believable, morally compromised protagonists.
The question then becomes…
Which was better – the book or the movie?
October 13, 2012
This isn't the Le Carre of the Smiley novels. Here he deals with the war on terror and I think he is missing the cold war because it doesn't really work.
The main character Issa, is a Chechen Muslim (supposedly) smuggled into Germany. He is in contact with a lawyer Annabel (young, attractive and left leaning, of course) Issa has business with Tommy Brue, a British, 60 year old banker whose has money put aside for Issa (long story). Floating around theses three are a couple of Turkish muslims, who are clownish caricatures and various members of the German intelligence community, some of whom we see a lot of and they are given various political rants periodically.
Le Carre throws a lot of characters into the mix and the whole is rather confusing and lacking in nuance. The Germans are a mixed bunch, some well-meaning others unscrupulous, mostly incompetent. The Brits are nasty and rather stupid, the Americans nasty and ruthless. the main character has no real substance and obviously the handsome 60 something banker will most likely get off with the attractive lawyer (a bit of wish fulfilment by the author methinks!!)
The ending is obvious, not a great deal happens, there is a bit of political posturing and the whole thing is a rather confusing mess of pottage.
The main character Issa, is a Chechen Muslim (supposedly) smuggled into Germany. He is in contact with a lawyer Annabel (young, attractive and left leaning, of course) Issa has business with Tommy Brue, a British, 60 year old banker whose has money put aside for Issa (long story). Floating around theses three are a couple of Turkish muslims, who are clownish caricatures and various members of the German intelligence community, some of whom we see a lot of and they are given various political rants periodically.
Le Carre throws a lot of characters into the mix and the whole is rather confusing and lacking in nuance. The Germans are a mixed bunch, some well-meaning others unscrupulous, mostly incompetent. The Brits are nasty and rather stupid, the Americans nasty and ruthless. the main character has no real substance and obviously the handsome 60 something banker will most likely get off with the attractive lawyer (a bit of wish fulfilment by the author methinks!!)
The ending is obvious, not a great deal happens, there is a bit of political posturing and the whole thing is a rather confusing mess of pottage.
August 20, 2014
Well, A Most Wanted Man is not the best of Le Carre's book. Agreed. Bachman is not Smiley. Agreed. The world behind Iron Curtain and Cold War politics is quite a different situation than the danger the world landed in after September 11. Agreed again.
But the picture created by the old master of an espionage genre is still convincing, reality bleak enough and both idealists and disillusioned ones betrayed once again.
November 19, 2011
John le Carré at his best is an intricate plotter and storyteller who depicts the spy game as you never see it in Hollywood (well, except when Hollywood is making adaptations of John le Carré novels) — gritty and sleazy and all sharp but blurry edges, full of generally unpleasant people who are rarely acting out of high falutin' morality. At his worst, he's a cranky old man who's angry at the world, which is what you seem to get in his later novels. Which is not to say he's any less of a writer, but kind of like The Mission Song, another book about a naive POC who gets sold out by unprincipled Western spy masters, A Most Wanted Man ups the ante by having the central figure in this tale, an idealistic, unlettered Muslim, screwed over by half a dozen countries by the end of the book.
The action takes place in Germany, one of le Carré's favorite haunts before and after the Cold War. Issa is a Muslim from Chechnya who has been snuck into the country, after having spent time in various hells from Chechnya to Turkey. He seeks help from a German civil rights lawyer named Annabel, who finds out that Issa's father left him a very large sum of money, held by a small British bank run by Tommy Brue. Unfortunately, Issa's father was a very bad man. Even more unfortunately, the intelligence apparatus of the entire Western world seems to have picked up on Issa's presence and sees him as a way of getting at a much larger prize, a wanted Muslim financier of terrorism and jihad. Issa finds both Annabel and Tommy drawn into his plight and reluctantly taking up his cause, trying to find him refuge and a new life in the West, which brings them into the sights of the same men watching Issa.
Characteristic of le Carré novels, pretty much everyone lies at one point or another in this book and everything about every character will be cast into doubt. Le Carré's passion seems to be showing how ruthlessly and unjustly innocent people can be ground up in the gears of "national security." Issa, Annabel, and Tommy come from very different stations in life, but they're all just collateral damage in the War on Terror.
This isn't my favorite le Carré novel so far, as his angry edge seemed just a bit too sharp and obvious, especially towards the (inevitable and rather predictable) ending. But it's still a gritty, well-crafted story, highly critical of the War on Terror without particularly defending the terrorists who are the alleged bad guys of this book. Le Carré carefully sets up his characters and his situations, firmly grounding them in the real world, making everything completely believable, and then he starts kicking people in the teeth.
A fine book, but one I am inclined to give 3.5 stars, as somewhere in the complicated interpersonal relationships and spy games, I failed to find any real heart in this story.
The action takes place in Germany, one of le Carré's favorite haunts before and after the Cold War. Issa is a Muslim from Chechnya who has been snuck into the country, after having spent time in various hells from Chechnya to Turkey. He seeks help from a German civil rights lawyer named Annabel, who finds out that Issa's father left him a very large sum of money, held by a small British bank run by Tommy Brue. Unfortunately, Issa's father was a very bad man. Even more unfortunately, the intelligence apparatus of the entire Western world seems to have picked up on Issa's presence and sees him as a way of getting at a much larger prize, a wanted Muslim financier of terrorism and jihad. Issa finds both Annabel and Tommy drawn into his plight and reluctantly taking up his cause, trying to find him refuge and a new life in the West, which brings them into the sights of the same men watching Issa.
Characteristic of le Carré novels, pretty much everyone lies at one point or another in this book and everything about every character will be cast into doubt. Le Carré's passion seems to be showing how ruthlessly and unjustly innocent people can be ground up in the gears of "national security." Issa, Annabel, and Tommy come from very different stations in life, but they're all just collateral damage in the War on Terror.
This isn't my favorite le Carré novel so far, as his angry edge seemed just a bit too sharp and obvious, especially towards the (inevitable and rather predictable) ending. But it's still a gritty, well-crafted story, highly critical of the War on Terror without particularly defending the terrorists who are the alleged bad guys of this book. Le Carré carefully sets up his characters and his situations, firmly grounding them in the real world, making everything completely believable, and then he starts kicking people in the teeth.
A fine book, but one I am inclined to give 3.5 stars, as somewhere in the complicated interpersonal relationships and spy games, I failed to find any real heart in this story.
March 20, 2021
This novel burns slow for about the first third or so until the characters become more established. Still, it's beautifully written and carefully plotted.
February 25, 2022
le Carré transplants his trademark world of espionage from the Cold War into the post-9/11 world in this book. The same players are involved, but with somewhat different roles and a new Islamic contingent. With the action set in Germany, the point of view is primarily German but with significant input from the Brits and Americans.
And the Russians, whose brutal wars in Chechnya in the 1990s set the stage for the actions that play out during the course of this story. Any experienced reader of le Carré's novels will realize from the start that things will turn out bleakly for at least some of the characters to whom we become attached. Which ones, how badly, and at whose hands will not be revealed until the end.
Although this is not one of le Carré's masterworks, it nevertheless succeeds as an exploration of the conflicting roles of good, evil and compromise in the face of challenging circumstances. Of the benefits of the long, subtle game versus rapid ruthlessness.
Reading this book against the backdrop of events unfolding in the Ukraine at this very moment can't help but leave me with the feeling that le Carré would never have run out of things about which to despair, whether international politics and intrigue or personal introspection and relationships.
And the Russians, whose brutal wars in Chechnya in the 1990s set the stage for the actions that play out during the course of this story. Any experienced reader of le Carré's novels will realize from the start that things will turn out bleakly for at least some of the characters to whom we become attached. Which ones, how badly, and at whose hands will not be revealed until the end.
Although this is not one of le Carré's masterworks, it nevertheless succeeds as an exploration of the conflicting roles of good, evil and compromise in the face of challenging circumstances. Of the benefits of the long, subtle game versus rapid ruthlessness.
Reading this book against the backdrop of events unfolding in the Ukraine at this very moment can't help but leave me with the feeling that le Carré would never have run out of things about which to despair, whether international politics and intrigue or personal introspection and relationships.
March 25, 2021
Honestly, I was quite disappointed with this novel. Having read and enjoyed le Carre's writing in the past, I had high hopes for this one. Sadly, I didn't enjoy this book at all. I could not bring myself to feel for the characters, no matter how much I tried. The book was full of stereotypes and the plot was (for most part) completely predictable. A Most Wanted Man felt like an uninspired rewrite of another le Carre novel that I read, just set in a different setting. Was there anything I liked about it? Well, the ending was refreshingly depressive and it seemed to make sense. The tragic ending is probably the only thing I liked about this book because it felt real. I do feel for the message of this book- if it is meant to be a warning against our Western governments that rob us of human rights and privacy under the pretense of fight against terrorism. I'll add one star for that and for (what I felt to be) a realistic ending. Apart from that, there is really nothing to remember this book for.
October 23, 2026
It goes without saying that John le Carre is, without a doubt, one of my favorite writers. I have been riveted and mesmerized by his novels of espionage and the frailty and ambiguity of the human condition as portrayed in his books for many years. At the age of eighty-nine years old, David Cornwell known by his pen name, John le Carre, passed away at his home in Cornwall, England. And he was still busy writing. During the 1950s and 1960s, he worked for both the Security Service (MI5) and the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). But it was with his third novel, The Spy Who Came In From the Cold became an international best-seller allowing le Carre to leave the British Secret Intelligence and become a full-time author. And the many books that have followed leave a powerful legacy. Most of John le Carre’s books are spy stories during the Cold War portraying British intelligence agents aware of the moral ambiguity their work and engaged in more psychological than physical drama. And while espionage was the genre that brought him fame, he used the platform to explore larger ethical problems. Following the end of the Cold War, he extended his writing to other global issues, such as the War on Terror. John le Carre will be missed.
A Most Wanted Man is a dark, slow-paced espionage thriller that critiques the post-9/11 War on Terror through moral ambiguity and institutional ruthlessness as seen starkly by the arrival of Issa in Hamburg. Issa is a starving, traumatized young Russian-Chechen man with a dark past and smuggled into Germany. He is aided by Annabel Richter, an idealist and a human rights lawyer, and Tommy Bruegel the elderly head of a local failing private bank where Issa’s money is being held in a secret account handled only by his deceased father. And there is Gunther Bachman, a cynical German intelligence officer, who tracks Issa while trying to outmaneuver rival and aggressive spy agencies from the United States and Britain who view him as a pawn or terrorist threat. There is no resolution in this novel as it takes a sharp look at the cost of the War on Terror with its paranoia and bureaucratic incompetence erode basic human decency. This was a tense and riveting character-driven novel that kept my interest throughout the narrative, although many readers thought it too slow. However, it has been lauded for its deep psychological insight, sharp prose, and realistic portrayal of modern espionage.
A Most Wanted Man is a dark, slow-paced espionage thriller that critiques the post-9/11 War on Terror through moral ambiguity and institutional ruthlessness as seen starkly by the arrival of Issa in Hamburg. Issa is a starving, traumatized young Russian-Chechen man with a dark past and smuggled into Germany. He is aided by Annabel Richter, an idealist and a human rights lawyer, and Tommy Bruegel the elderly head of a local failing private bank where Issa’s money is being held in a secret account handled only by his deceased father. And there is Gunther Bachman, a cynical German intelligence officer, who tracks Issa while trying to outmaneuver rival and aggressive spy agencies from the United States and Britain who view him as a pawn or terrorist threat. There is no resolution in this novel as it takes a sharp look at the cost of the War on Terror with its paranoia and bureaucratic incompetence erode basic human decency. This was a tense and riveting character-driven novel that kept my interest throughout the narrative, although many readers thought it too slow. However, it has been lauded for its deep psychological insight, sharp prose, and realistic portrayal of modern espionage.
“When 9/11 happened, there were two ground zeros. . . One ground zero was in New York. The other ground zero that you don’t hear about so much was right here in Hamburg.”
“Fathers, he thought as the pill began to take hold of him. Mine and Issa’s. Brothers in crime, riding into the sunset on pitch-black Lipizzaners that refuse to turn white.”
“The running feud between those determined to defend civil rights at all costs, and those determined to curtail them in the name of greater national security, was approaching critical mass.”
“History doesn’t pause for breath, they say. The deeper we dig, the deeper we seem to go back in time.”
“We are not policemen, we are spies. We do not arrest our targets. We develop them and redirect them at bigger targets. When we identify a network, we watch it, we listen to it, we penetrate it and by degrees we control it. Arrests are of negative value. They destroy a precious acquisition.”
“I gave her my word. The one we never break, agent runner to agent. That was the deal. Approved by Joint.”
July 24, 2022
I thought this was going to be a spy story with a war-on-terror-setting, and while there's no spies it is, albeit only tangibly, about how governments deal with muslim refugees. Mostly it's extremely tedious and boring. The first 30 pages or so were entertaining, then there's way too many (flat) characters and little plot. Thanks to the strange structure, you never really start to care about anyone or anything that's going on.
March 22, 2009
A quandry here: the first two thirds of this is dull set-up and exposition stuff that doesn't manage to get the narrative flowing. A vaguely interesting counter-terrorism network is documented and arrayed against a not-very interesting suspect and his associates.
What keeps you in the book is that this isn't someone's early, earnest attempt at a suspense novel; this is a late work, from master John le Carré, who certainly knows his way around the chessboard. So there must be something to it all, right ?
Well, yes and no. If the same skill & care that concocted the endgame here-- the riveting last third of the book-- could have been brought to bear on the exposition, this would be the best le Carré in a long time, a small masterpiece.
As it stands, the first two-thirds are spent pushing anonymous pieces around the board, adjusting the grounds for the endgame; I'd love to be saying here that it was like watching clockwork to see the pawns being guided into place, that it was a very sophisticated process to witness, interlocking parts gliding into place for the final set-piece..... but it wasn't.
All in all, the introductory parts are (purposefully ?) tossed out in a shambles, perhaps in an attempt to make the end more compelling. For me, this needed to be pared down to novella-length to show only the endgame, or expanded to five, six hundred pages to faithfully render characters & exposition in more than shorthand form. (Something to note is that the beleaguered hardback industry, which requires not more or less than 300 pgs as the standard for suspense, espionage, mystery fiction, --have a look at recent ones--- always prevails these days... Established author or novice, three-hundred pages. Sorry to say that novels don't come out later in director's cut versions.)
But le Carré knows his endgame like nobody else, and how to conduct his characters in the final act. The tone here is controlled, acerbic, and taut. If your patience holds through the intro chapters, the finale is beautifully structured, timed and rendered in short, devastating order.
What keeps you in the book is that this isn't someone's early, earnest attempt at a suspense novel; this is a late work, from master John le Carré, who certainly knows his way around the chessboard. So there must be something to it all, right ?
Well, yes and no. If the same skill & care that concocted the endgame here-- the riveting last third of the book-- could have been brought to bear on the exposition, this would be the best le Carré in a long time, a small masterpiece.
As it stands, the first two-thirds are spent pushing anonymous pieces around the board, adjusting the grounds for the endgame; I'd love to be saying here that it was like watching clockwork to see the pawns being guided into place, that it was a very sophisticated process to witness, interlocking parts gliding into place for the final set-piece..... but it wasn't.
All in all, the introductory parts are (purposefully ?) tossed out in a shambles, perhaps in an attempt to make the end more compelling. For me, this needed to be pared down to novella-length to show only the endgame, or expanded to five, six hundred pages to faithfully render characters & exposition in more than shorthand form. (Something to note is that the beleaguered hardback industry, which requires not more or less than 300 pgs as the standard for suspense, espionage, mystery fiction, --have a look at recent ones--- always prevails these days... Established author or novice, three-hundred pages. Sorry to say that novels don't come out later in director's cut versions.)
But le Carré knows his endgame like nobody else, and how to conduct his characters in the final act. The tone here is controlled, acerbic, and taut. If your patience holds through the intro chapters, the finale is beautifully structured, timed and rendered in short, devastating order.
June 2, 2012
Updated, having seen the movie: https://alittleteaalittlechat.wordpre...
I hesitate about putting this on my better-written-than-Harry-Potter shelf. It is and it isn't.
Poor le Carré. He needed a new day job after the Cold War made his old one irrelevant. The stuff he's churned out since is hopeless. He doesn't have a clue how to understand anybody except Cold War spies.
I bought this for 3 francs and I read about that much worth of it. Moving on now.
I hesitate about putting this on my better-written-than-Harry-Potter shelf. It is and it isn't.
Poor le Carré. He needed a new day job after the Cold War made his old one irrelevant. The stuff he's churned out since is hopeless. He doesn't have a clue how to understand anybody except Cold War spies.
I bought this for 3 francs and I read about that much worth of it. Moving on now.
September 2, 2018
This story did not disappoint.
The Cold War may be over, but Le Carre has kept on going.
A bit of a spoiler....
The ending took me way off centre. It was something I didn’t expect.
Also, this can be a good introduction to Le Carre’s writing if you haven’t read any of his stories.
This book was well worth the time.
The Cold War may be over, but Le Carre has kept on going.
A bit of a spoiler....
The ending took me way off centre. It was something I didn’t expect.
Also, this can be a good introduction to Le Carre’s writing if you haven’t read any of his stories.
This book was well worth the time.
February 19, 2011
John Le Carre defined the Cold War thriller but he has since become a writer of liberal-minded fictional critiques of the cynical and confused world of post-Soviet security. They are worthy but not classics - the heart is on the sleeve, we are supposed to be outraged and that is about that.
This story is no exception but its precise subject matter would give the game away and that is not something that you do with thrillers. Suffice it to say that we are talking about the war on terror ...
There has always been, however, a great novelist lurking inside Le Carre and the book is worth reading for the early chapters where he builds character, and a sensitive drawing of a set of relationships between vulnerable Muslim migrants to Germany, with the same mastery that he employed in the creation of George Smiley and the protagonists of the brilliant 'A Perfect Spy'.
He also does bureaucratic competition well although the characterisation here soon descends into archetypes. This is material that he is almost writing 'on auto' - so much so that the early promise is lost and we end up with a slightly angry standard thriller narrative that you may enjoy but which is not going to change your life.
These late thrillers will not last as the Cold War stories will do. They are too 'engaged', narratively too simplistic, oddly black and white in a way that is the precise opposite in tone of the earlier work but you may enjoy it and I hope it will make you a little angry at the vicious nature of our claimed protectors. A thriller, perhaps, for modern liberals but undemanding.
This story is no exception but its precise subject matter would give the game away and that is not something that you do with thrillers. Suffice it to say that we are talking about the war on terror ...
There has always been, however, a great novelist lurking inside Le Carre and the book is worth reading for the early chapters where he builds character, and a sensitive drawing of a set of relationships between vulnerable Muslim migrants to Germany, with the same mastery that he employed in the creation of George Smiley and the protagonists of the brilliant 'A Perfect Spy'.
He also does bureaucratic competition well although the characterisation here soon descends into archetypes. This is material that he is almost writing 'on auto' - so much so that the early promise is lost and we end up with a slightly angry standard thriller narrative that you may enjoy but which is not going to change your life.
These late thrillers will not last as the Cold War stories will do. They are too 'engaged', narratively too simplistic, oddly black and white in a way that is the precise opposite in tone of the earlier work but you may enjoy it and I hope it will make you a little angry at the vicious nature of our claimed protectors. A thriller, perhaps, for modern liberals but undemanding.
Read
December 24, 2008Never having read anything by le Carré before, I wasn't sure what to expect. I knew of his legacy, and I had seen The Constant Gardener (a film I quite enjoyed, though that was partly because of the gorgeous cinematography), but that was about it. So it was on the recommendation of an interesting review in the NY Times a month or so ago that I picked this book up.
I'm glad I did. A Most Wanted Man is a very striking novel about people trying to live their lives in a world that was changed after the events of 9/11. For most people, this change hasn't been a personal one, but rather something ideological. Luckily, most of us only have secondary or tertiary connections to the horrific accidents, at best, and so the change that has occured has been in the actions of governments and the feelings of fear, anger, etc. that we feel.
So it is for the characters of this novel. We are introduced to Issa, who may or may not be connected to terrorism, and his lawyer, a German woman who desperately wants to save this poor man. We are also introduced to the intelligence community, mostly through Bachmann, a German intelligence agent, but there will be plenty more of his ilk by the time the novel is even halfway through.
What surprised me is how little action there is in this book. It isn't the Bourne Identity or even a Jack Ryan type novel. This is about conversations and surveillance. It succeeds. It digs into how agents are fighting amongst themselves, trying to save the world in the only way they know. Only everyone has a different idea and how this mishmash comes together to form policy is both realistic and frightening. More interesting are the people who get caught up in the game of intelligence through no real desire of theirs and how they are manipulated and how they try to manipulate. Does this book directly relate to most common people? No, but parallels can easily be drawn, though our lives are much more benign, much less fraught with peril and Islamic extremists.
I'll admit the vehemence in the ending is a bit...exagerated, though the action and the decisions make absolute sense to me. I cannot give it away, but it seems that it was the only way, really, for this book to finish. I raced through the end, desperate to know and I was satisfied in my racing. It's sad and it's sorrowful, but it's well done and it's beautiful as well. I shall be adding a few of le Carré's novels to my stack of books to read after this, because A Most Wanted Man is a truly good book worthy of consideration.
I'm glad I did. A Most Wanted Man is a very striking novel about people trying to live their lives in a world that was changed after the events of 9/11. For most people, this change hasn't been a personal one, but rather something ideological. Luckily, most of us only have secondary or tertiary connections to the horrific accidents, at best, and so the change that has occured has been in the actions of governments and the feelings of fear, anger, etc. that we feel.
So it is for the characters of this novel. We are introduced to Issa, who may or may not be connected to terrorism, and his lawyer, a German woman who desperately wants to save this poor man. We are also introduced to the intelligence community, mostly through Bachmann, a German intelligence agent, but there will be plenty more of his ilk by the time the novel is even halfway through.
What surprised me is how little action there is in this book. It isn't the Bourne Identity or even a Jack Ryan type novel. This is about conversations and surveillance. It succeeds. It digs into how agents are fighting amongst themselves, trying to save the world in the only way they know. Only everyone has a different idea and how this mishmash comes together to form policy is both realistic and frightening. More interesting are the people who get caught up in the game of intelligence through no real desire of theirs and how they are manipulated and how they try to manipulate. Does this book directly relate to most common people? No, but parallels can easily be drawn, though our lives are much more benign, much less fraught with peril and Islamic extremists.
I'll admit the vehemence in the ending is a bit...exagerated, though the action and the decisions make absolute sense to me. I cannot give it away, but it seems that it was the only way, really, for this book to finish. I raced through the end, desperate to know and I was satisfied in my racing. It's sad and it's sorrowful, but it's well done and it's beautiful as well. I shall be adding a few of le Carré's novels to my stack of books to read after this, because A Most Wanted Man is a truly good book worthy of consideration.
June 26, 2008
I like LeCarre (Spy Who Came in from the Cold is great), and this one is centered in one of my hometowns, Hamburg. What's great about this book is LeCarre's unique analysis of post-9/11 spying, and all the red tape and International finagling that is going on. What's also good about this book, though, is that the characters are interesting and believable, and not just there to advance the plot.
June 2, 2014
Well written, but very typically depressing John le Carre. No redemption, all trust rewarded with deceit, manipulation on every side, and we are left at the end of the book stunned and sad when the master manipulators are out-manipulated. The ending reminds me very much of the end of "The Spy Who Came In from the Cold" except this time le Carre is upset at the United States. No one is a good guy in any situation, really. Every person is made up of the many shades of deceptive gray, sometimes more "white" and sometimes more "black", but never seeming to be who they really are at any time.
I know that le Carre had a most unhappy childhood and relationship with his father (read "A Perfect Spy" for a clear description of his father, Rick Pym in the book). This theme of trust betrayed is common throughout his books, probably because he lived it so deeply himself.
Again well written, but I really could not gather any enthusiasm for any of the characters.
I know that le Carre had a most unhappy childhood and relationship with his father (read "A Perfect Spy" for a clear description of his father, Rick Pym in the book). This theme of trust betrayed is common throughout his books, probably because he lived it so deeply himself.
Again well written, but I really could not gather any enthusiasm for any of the characters.
April 21, 2021
A good story that with all it's suspense is more of a character study than an all out thriller. The story is straight forward with little in twist and turns, but it is a strong story line. The characters are also very straight forward with very little surprises other than the idea that Americans can not be trusted (no surprise there).
As with any of Carre's stories this one is worthy of a read. but personally I didn't think it stacks up to his other works.
As with any of Carre's stories this one is worthy of a read. but personally I didn't think it stacks up to his other works.
March 12, 2016
I read this after seeing the really wonderful film adaptation. There are, of course, some differences.
I have to say, that while I enjoyed the cynical outlook and the conflicts within all the characters, I found Issa's character to be really annoying, which I guess is the point.
I have to say, that while I enjoyed the cynical outlook and the conflicts within all the characters, I found Issa's character to be really annoying, which I guess is the point.
January 16, 2011
This novel has 416 pages and was written in 2008 and published in paperback in 2009. It is a realistic tale about the international war on terror. John le Carre's writing style is very polished and uses a very large vocabulary. This story develops at a good pace with a well developed plot. You may think that Islam and the war on terror are difficult subjects to write a novel about but John le Carre has done such good research that the realities of this story read like a dream. John writes with such a neutral balance about the war on terror that it makes this story so easy for the reader to follow.
The reader gets and understands the whole picture of everyone just trying to do their little bit and the right thing. The banker, the lawyer, the Turkish Muslim family and the intelligence community are all trying to do their best for Issa Karpov. John explains how counter terrorism agencies do their work and describes how good interview techniques can bring good results. As the story develops you begin to wonder about Issa Karpov and you start to have your own doubts about him. A few things do not add up and you wonder how much of the truth he is telling everyone, is he genuine or a fraud, is he a criminal or a terrorist?
Throughout this novel there are plenty of moral and political issues that the reader is forced to think about and form their own opinion. All the characters in this story are well developed and by the end of this book you reach a very sad ending and feel that all the characters have been betrayed. You are left with a sense of loss as you close this book and think back about it all. You then wonder who is winning the war on terror and how the work of many professionals can go to waste due to their country's special relationship with America.
I think that A Most Wanted Man is a good book and I shall be voting it 4 stars on goodreads . I rather enjoyed watching the More 4 documentary broadcast on Friday 10th December 2010, when Jon Snow interviewed John le Carre at his home in Cornwall. I saw this television programme before I started reading this book and John's voice does come out in the book as the character Gunther Bachmann of the German intelligence service. Because of John's old real life day-job as an intelligence officer with MI5 and MI6, you can be sure that his novels reflect real life rather than fantasy. John le Carre is an author of the old school, writing his novels in longhand using a pen and paper. He then edits his draft and tears the paper before using staples to piece his sections together. I was very surprised to watch this old school style writing technique on television but his finished books demonstrate just what a first class author John le Carre actually is.
The reader gets and understands the whole picture of everyone just trying to do their little bit and the right thing. The banker, the lawyer, the Turkish Muslim family and the intelligence community are all trying to do their best for Issa Karpov. John explains how counter terrorism agencies do their work and describes how good interview techniques can bring good results. As the story develops you begin to wonder about Issa Karpov and you start to have your own doubts about him. A few things do not add up and you wonder how much of the truth he is telling everyone, is he genuine or a fraud, is he a criminal or a terrorist?
Throughout this novel there are plenty of moral and political issues that the reader is forced to think about and form their own opinion. All the characters in this story are well developed and by the end of this book you reach a very sad ending and feel that all the characters have been betrayed. You are left with a sense of loss as you close this book and think back about it all. You then wonder who is winning the war on terror and how the work of many professionals can go to waste due to their country's special relationship with America.
I think that A Most Wanted Man is a good book and I shall be voting it 4 stars on goodreads . I rather enjoyed watching the More 4 documentary broadcast on Friday 10th December 2010, when Jon Snow interviewed John le Carre at his home in Cornwall. I saw this television programme before I started reading this book and John's voice does come out in the book as the character Gunther Bachmann of the German intelligence service. Because of John's old real life day-job as an intelligence officer with MI5 and MI6, you can be sure that his novels reflect real life rather than fantasy. John le Carre is an author of the old school, writing his novels in longhand using a pen and paper. He then edits his draft and tears the paper before using staples to piece his sections together. I was very surprised to watch this old school style writing technique on television but his finished books demonstrate just what a first class author John le Carre actually is.
February 22, 2020
A most wanted man is my second le carre book after getting blown by beautifully written The spy who came from the cold.This book is nothing in comparison to the spy who came in from the cold. The book could have been completed in around 175 to 200 pages.The ending left me with the feeling that it was damp squib.But one thing I am certain that if one is fan of this genre than every word written by John le carre is a must read.I would recommend interested readers to keep this one at the end in their john le carre reading list.
September 9, 2026
John le Carré's A Most Wanted Man is not one of his better books, though it does give one an idea of what happens when multiple espionage and security forces all get tangled up in the same case. The book starts with Issa, son of a Soviet colonel who raped and killed Issa's mother and only much later decides to make him his heir. What? Give a fortune to a nebbishy Chechen terrorist? Official hackles are raised in three (or more) countries, and ... and ...
Well, I won't give away the plot -- even though you'd have to be very naive not to have guessed the final outcome.
Well, I won't give away the plot -- even though you'd have to be very naive not to have guessed the final outcome.
November 11, 2025
Eh. This really bored me. On the other hand, who except le Carré is going to give you an adjective like: "...she had adopted a Carmelite silence."
April 4, 2016
"A Most Wanted Man" is one of the newest Le Carré's, portraying the "new" post cold war spy novels. it is by far better than its consequent "Our Kind of Traitor" which is another fling the author had with a completely "communist-free" spy novel.
The Novel is well written as always, fluent and gripping. Takes place in Hamburg, symbolically (and later proven crucial to the turn of events) the city where the 9/11 perpetrators have found refuge right under the nose of the German intelligence services. It is in this city that an illegal Chechen Muslim immigrant, called Issa Karpov finds refuge with a Turkish family.
We later find out that Issa is indeed wanted both in Sweden and in Russia/his homeland. He is helped by human rights lawyer Annabel Richter (an infidel to whom he is slightly attracted and subsequently tries to fight the ambiguity of his identity) and by a banker called Tommy Bruce, whose bank "inherited" an illegal account that involves Issa (i won't give up any more details - don't worry!)
Meanwhile, this is all taking place under the scrutiny of Gunther Bachmann a washed up German intelligence officer, determined to make amends to the German miss of 9/11 (and his own complicated past) by using Issa as a source to get to a high ranking terrorist activist. This is done under and despite the interference of the British intelligence, The Americans and Gunther's superiors.
So far the plot. I have since reading also saw the movie (starring Philip Seymour Hoffman as Gunther) and I must confess this might be better on the big screen than as a novel. True to my Le Carré I still call it a great read, but it seemed that (though the message is very well understood) it lacks some sort of "Le Carré-ish panache" ...
It's hard for me to put the finger on it, but it seemed like the message the great Spy-master is trying to convey has already been comprehended in "Absolute Friends" (if you read it you know what I'm talking about, ho mighty America!). A Most Wanted Man is promising at the start but loses it's momentum, and leaves you with a somewhat sense of a miss ... meaning you sit there thinking "this could have been spectacular ! "
Still a great read as always (i said it three times now), well written and intriguing - though it is one of few Le Carré that did not get 5 stars by me.
The Novel is well written as always, fluent and gripping. Takes place in Hamburg, symbolically (and later proven crucial to the turn of events) the city where the 9/11 perpetrators have found refuge right under the nose of the German intelligence services. It is in this city that an illegal Chechen Muslim immigrant, called Issa Karpov finds refuge with a Turkish family.
We later find out that Issa is indeed wanted both in Sweden and in Russia/his homeland. He is helped by human rights lawyer Annabel Richter (an infidel to whom he is slightly attracted and subsequently tries to fight the ambiguity of his identity) and by a banker called Tommy Bruce, whose bank "inherited" an illegal account that involves Issa (i won't give up any more details - don't worry!)
Meanwhile, this is all taking place under the scrutiny of Gunther Bachmann a washed up German intelligence officer, determined to make amends to the German miss of 9/11 (and his own complicated past) by using Issa as a source to get to a high ranking terrorist activist. This is done under and despite the interference of the British intelligence, The Americans and Gunther's superiors.
So far the plot. I have since reading also saw the movie (starring Philip Seymour Hoffman as Gunther) and I must confess this might be better on the big screen than as a novel. True to my Le Carré I still call it a great read, but it seemed that (though the message is very well understood) it lacks some sort of "Le Carré-ish panache" ...
It's hard for me to put the finger on it, but it seemed like the message the great Spy-master is trying to convey has already been comprehended in "Absolute Friends" (if you read it you know what I'm talking about, ho mighty America!). A Most Wanted Man is promising at the start but loses it's momentum, and leaves you with a somewhat sense of a miss ... meaning you sit there thinking "this could have been spectacular ! "
Still a great read as always (i said it three times now), well written and intriguing - though it is one of few Le Carré that did not get 5 stars by me.
September 13, 2010
One of the best spy novels I've ever read. LeCarre writes with an exquisite economy; there is not a wasted passage. Though the author is intimate with the spy game and has done much research for this book the reader is never oppressed with pages of research as in so many other books by so many other authors for which much research was done. Every sentence moves the story along and the art with which the author makes the reader think is brilliant.
This is a timely story of post 9/11 frantic terrorist hunting. One is taken from Croatia to Russia, Sweden on the brutally bruised soul of a confused boy who is unfortunately caught in the frenzy of the 'war on terror'. We're shown methods of money laundering by really bad guys, the intrigue of international security forces pretending to be working together for the good of humankind, the horrors of the fanaticism of greed, religion, governments, and the imppotence of well meaning social agencies attempting to protect human rights of individuals. The author compares decisions having to be made today with similar in the Germany of the 1930's on the brink of Nazism. It's a world gone mad being described in this book. You will be afraid to wonder just what the cost is of this war on terror. Is it life or law that is of primary importance?
This is a timely story of post 9/11 frantic terrorist hunting. One is taken from Croatia to Russia, Sweden on the brutally bruised soul of a confused boy who is unfortunately caught in the frenzy of the 'war on terror'. We're shown methods of money laundering by really bad guys, the intrigue of international security forces pretending to be working together for the good of humankind, the horrors of the fanaticism of greed, religion, governments, and the imppotence of well meaning social agencies attempting to protect human rights of individuals. The author compares decisions having to be made today with similar in the Germany of the 1930's on the brink of Nazism. It's a world gone mad being described in this book. You will be afraid to wonder just what the cost is of this war on terror. Is it life or law that is of primary importance?
October 3, 2008
A Most Wanted Man continues Le Carres exploration of the complex, often painful world of the post soviet intelligence community. Following the journey of a young man named Issa as he pursues his patrimony in Germany and unravels the lives of everyone involved in the process, A Most Wanted Man is as much a story of delayed judgment and unreserved conclusions as it is a spy novel. For those who have sinned there is no escape, not even in death. Secrets will be revealed, stories told, and the full weight of truth brought to bear. Unlike Le Carres past novels in fully placing the intrigue on the back burner, A Most Wanted Man remains true to form in being absolutely merciless. There is no escape from the hands of the powerful and interested for Issa or those he has touched in his pursuit of his patrimony. The machine has begun to do its work, and it can not be escaped. The conclusion is at once shocking, unsatisfying, and authentic, relentless in insisting in its own inevitability and undeniable as the only possible result of all that preceded it.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,455 reviews