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A Most Wanted Man | 
 enlarge | Author: John Le Carre
Publisher: Scribner
Category: Book
List Price: $28.00
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Rating:  95 reviews
Sales Rank: 148
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.4
ISBN: 1416594884
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9781416594888
ASIN: 1416594884
Publication Date: October 7, 2008
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Condition: Brand New!!! bce
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Product Description
New spies with new loyalties, old spies with old ones; terror as the new mantra; decent people wanting to do good but caught in the moral maze; all the sound, rational reasons for doing the inhuman thing; the recognition that we cannot safely love or pity and remain good "patriots" -- this is the fabric of John le Carre's fiercely compelling and current novel 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 Freres, a failing British bank based in Hamburg. Annabel, Issa and Brue form an unlikely alliance -- and a triangle of impossible loves is born. Meanwhile, scenting a sure kill in the "War on Terror," the rival spies of Germany, England and America converge upon the innocents. Thrilling, compassionate, peopled with characters the reader never wants to let go, A Most Wanted Man is a work of deep humanity and uncommon relevance to our times.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 90 more reviews...
 "During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." September 18, 2008
41 out of 50 found this review helpful
George Orwell.
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 naive 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
le Carre is continuing his code of honor and attempting to tell everyone that the "emperor has no clothes." November 18, 2008
After reading the first few lines of A MOST WANTED MAN by John le Carre, the setting is not only clearly revealed, it presents a sinister sense of foreboding. Hamburg, Germany, is the background against which the story is juxtaposed. Some readers may be tipped off by this choice of location, where at least six of the 9/11 terrorists, including Mohammed Atta, were undisturbed in plotting their attack. In addition, the dark shadow of Baader-Meinhof lurks in the background.
But as the novel opens we observe a skulking, emaciated, barely clothed young man moving around from pillar to post in the middle of a cold night and very erratic in his manner. Yet something about his determination to stay where he is, huddled in the shadows and then sometimes showing himself, appears studied, deliberate and determined not to leave the area near the train station. Despite trying to hide himself in plain sight, he strikes a strange pose in this ultra rich city, in his beggar's garb and subservient posture. He seems to be waiting for someone or something but is clearly unable to find who or what it is.
Melik Oktay is a Turkish heavyweight, a runner-up in the North German Championship hundred-meter butterfly stroke and star goalkeeper of his soccer team. He and his mother are leaving a travel shop when he and the stranger make eye contact. Something about him strikes a chord in Melik, but aside from noticing the deplorable shape this person is in, he is used to seeing the dregs of all kinds of humanity around the train station. Over the next few days the young "beggar" seems to be following Melik, who is at a loss to know why or quite what to do about it. Then, out of the blue, Melik answers his doorbell and finds the man holding a piece of cardboard that says in Turkish, "I am a Muslim medical student. I am tired and I wish to stay in your house. Issa." Melik notices a tiny gold replica of the Koran dangling from a bracelet on the boy's wrist. Just as Melik is about to chase him away, Layla intervenes and insists upon taking him into their home. She establishes him in the attic and embraces him as she would a long-lost son.
Issa tries to communicate in a guttural dialect of Turkish. But he could have been Russian. Layla finds out he is a Muslim and had been in prison in Istanbul. When she tries speaking to him in Chechen, they learn that is where he came from. Issa tells them a story that begins with him being smuggled away from his prison by bad people he had to pay. He became part of a group in which he and others were stuffed into a container where they could hardly breathe. They were then put on a ship that was to take them to Denmark (perhaps Copenhagen). But they took a detour to Gothenburg, Sweden, where he escaped back to the ship to Copenhagen. There, he boarded a Chechen lorry bound for Hamburg, and here he is. Melik is driven to the edge of his credulity and by his fury over the inconsistencies of what he has just heard. Even his claim to be a Muslim seems false when his practices do not adhere to the religion's edicts.
The Oktays become more and more uncomfortable with Issa in their home. Mr. Oktay is dead, and although the house is paid off, he was the only one with official German credentials. Layla has been desperately trying to have her status legalized and, with that, Issa's. With all of this in mind, they send Issa to an agency that specializes in helping immigrants.
Annabel Richter is part of Sanctuary North, "A Charitable Christian Foundation for the protection of stateless and displaced persons in the region of North Germany." She is a gung-ho, novice attorney who asks to advocate for Issa. He shows her a small bag around his neck that he claims holds the means he can use to access money from a bank account held by a private bank. The nickname for the special account is Lipizzaner. When the cash is secreted away it is black, and when it sees the light of day it has turned white, a process known as money laundering.
Tommy Brue, the sole surviving partner of an international banking house, is drawn into Issa's life story through secrets about his bank that he doesn't want to remember or know. His father was not always the conservative power broker he purported to be. His dealings with elements of dishonest Soviets, the mafia and others made the bank fortunes, but to Tommy these were ill-gotten gains of which he wanted no part. And for most of his career he has kept his distance from these old transactions only to find the alleged and unlikely legatee (Issa) coming forth in a most unusual way. He receives a mysterious and cryptic phone call from Annabel, who says she must meet with him immediately on behalf of a client.
Meetings convene, calls are made, papers are prepared, and Issa demands that all of his inheritance be donated to his hero, Dr. Abdullah (known by others as "Signpost" since Abdullah's idol, Sayyed Qutub, wrote the spiritual handbook of all Islamic militants, called Signposts Along the Way), who he believes is "a man of G-d" known for his philanthropic work to help the world's forgotten people. More calls and meetings ensue, and soon, among the three principals (Issa, Annabel and Tommy) arrangements are made for a final distribution of the fortune to be held at the bank --- all kept under wraps and secret.
Or so they think. It never occurs to any of them that they are being watched, followed, tape-recorded and not in control of their destinies. The "protectors" are made up of different anti-terrorism groups: German, British and American, each with agendas and egos that allow them all to skirt the law or make it up as they go along. The only one still not completely jaded and perverse is Gunther Bachman, who does not ascribe to the philosophy of the British and American "spooks," who believe they can do anything they want to anyone they think may be a terrorist. Bachman is not really interested in Issa per se; he has his eye on Signpost, who he believes is sending money not to charities but to terrorists. Could Issa know this? And is this why he demands that the Imam have all of his inheritance? Or is Bachman correct in his assessment of Issa and in direct conflict with his superiors?
John le Carre's worldview has always been to put human rights in the forefront of any political tension --- and that is clear in A MOST WANTED MAN. He also devotes time to his observation of the ineptness of today's spy masters and anti-terrorist agencies. Readers may already know that le Carre was a British spy. And in his long career, in which he has produced 21 novels, it's not a stretch to understand that his experience, coupled with a strong sense of the human condition and nurtured by his intelligence and imagination, has made him the master of the spy novel. During the Cold War he had a firma terra from which to draw his tales, but in today's world nothing is clear and each day brings new atrocities. A MOST WANTED MAN is many things in addition to being a strong polemic presented in fiction and represents the rage he seems to feel about how the West is fighting against Islamic terrorism.
But regardless of how le Carre expresses his personal politics in his novels, one thing has remained a constant in his work: his honesty. He never tries to mislead his readers nor does he try to disabuse them of their own opinions. Sometimes he may sound shrill or arrogant, and that should provoke readers to start thinking about their world and what is happening in it, especially in today's uncertain times. le Carre is continuing his code of honor and attempting to tell everyone that the "emperor has no clothes."
--- Reviewed by Barbara Lipkien Gershenbaum
The Nuances of the Spying Game September 30, 2008
11 out of 19 found this review helpful
I have always wanted to be spy or a spook in the spying game vernacular. After reading John Le Carre's first novel, 'A Call For The Dead' and meeting George Smiley, I imagined myself in a trench coat hiding in corners. I then went on to read every book written by John Le Carre. The best spy novel ever written, has John LeCarre's stamp, 'The Spy Who Came In From The Cold' and made into one of the very best films. Unfortunately, the Cold War ended and so did the romance of the spies. But, now, John Le Carre has given us an inside look at modern day spies with a novel about some of the political concerns of our time. A renaissance of the spy?
Germany has guilt, such guilt about 9/11. They failed to flush out Mohammed Atta and his colleagues who brought down the Twin Towers and the parts of the Pentagon. Now they are looking at all of the immigrants, and looking hard particularly at the Turkish contingency. Into this mix of fear and guilt comes Issa, a Russian of uncertain heritage, who buys his way into Hamburg. He hides himself in the home of a Turkish family, and they in turn find a lawyer, Annabel, who works for a sanctuary. All of these characters are wonderfully written. I believed I was in the room with them as they were discussing the pros and cons. I started rooting for Annabel and for Mr Brue, the German banker. And, depending upon the scene my allegiances changed slightly. The scenes are depicted with careful accuracy, I could hear the excited breathing, the clump of Issa's shoes as he walked. The food that Annabel brought to Issa, the yogurt, warm poppy seed rolls, the bottled water, I could taste them. The nuances of the spying game were caught in their essence.
And, the spooks, from London and Germany and the US, all vying for their chance to bring in the spy from the cold, literally. We experience first hand the extraordinary renditions we have heard about. They bring in Dr Abdullah to help finish their work and Annabel, poor Annabel, is drawn into the game. Is Mr Brue another George Smiley? Born to the upper class and torn between duty to his country and to his profession. Annabel, is the beautiful lawyer, a female that is difficult to get to know, aloof but sexual. Issa, a most unlikeable protagonist at times, why does Annabel feel she must save him?
All in all a wonderfully written novel. It is the conversation of the spies where they reveal themselves with words unsaid or unstated. The looks and the feel of the moment all reveal themselves to be a novel of surprise and the undoing of them all. I can see the film now-I missed you John Le Carre.
Highly, highly recommended. prisrob 09-30-08
TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
Deals and Duplicity September 4, 2008
6 out of 11 found this review helpful
It's always an occasion when John Le Carre publishes a new novel, and "A Most Wanted Man" is no exception.
A young, devout Muslim by the name of Issa sets the plot in motion by arriving in Hamburg, Germany, as an undocumented visitor. He carries a note that will open the vaults of a private bank, and provide him with the principal and interest on a deposit made by a Russian general in the early 1980's. Will Issa claim the money? What will it be used for? Who will be compromised? Remember, it is post 9/11, terror is the watchword, documents are the only acceptable proof of belonging, and even then you can't be sure. It's a world of deals and duplicity, do-gooders tainted by the times, and violence subtle and horrendous where good-hearted charitable donations outfit suicide bombers. As always, Le Carre reveals the anxiety and despair linked to power. It doesn't matter if it's the Red Menace, the menace of arms merchants and gunrunners, of pharmaceutical companies, dictators, or Islamic terrorists, anxiety touches all, and despair is the shallow water that leads to madness.
"A Most Wanted Man," is an exciting novel by an author who is never less than keyed into the zeitgeist. Le Carre handles character, description, and action like the master he is; and writes prose that is a joy. Anyone who can craft a sentence as elegant and clear as the 270 words that are paragraph two of chapter eight of this book has a place secured in Author Heaven. It's a sentence you can dance to, and I'll bet he had a lot of fun crafting it.
Finally, this quote from the young, civil-rights lawyer who has been retained by Issa; it gives a taste of the novel's world: "In my law school, we talked a great deal about law over life... It's a verity of our German history: law not to protect life but to abuse it. We did it to the Jews. In its current American form it licenses torture and kidnapping. And is infectious. Your country is not immune, neither is mine."
Fidelity and Betrayal September 8, 2008
6 out of 11 found this review helpful
WIth the title "A Most Wanted Man" and author John Le Carre, we expect that someone will be betrayed by the end of the novel. What we have no way to expect is the fidelity (and tentative love) shown by the immigrant's lawyer Annabel Richter, nor the fidelity of a Hamburg private banker, Tommy Brue. But even these, the most moral characters in the story, may be forced to compromise in the face of Islamic terrorism and the new protectors of western nations. Who will fail ? And how ? The mechanics of the story we can take for granted from a master of the craft such as Le Carre. What keeps us turning the pages in this book is not mere action but character development, as reality overtakes aspirations and self-sacrifice turns out to be impossible since it endangers others.
It would be nearly impossible to overstate the good qualities of this book. The pace of the story is perfect, the dialog is just right in a half-dozen accents, the the Hamburg milieu is convincing. What is most satisfying is the sense that Le Carre, after almost 50 years, has mastered his art the same way old Delta bluesmen have mastered theirs: as much by leaving out any false notes as by putting the right notes in.
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