A Most Wanted Man
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By John Le Carré
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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 round 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. 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.
A triangle of impossible loves is born.
Meanwhile, scenting a sure kill in the so-called War on Terror, the spies of three nations converge upon the innocents.
Poignant, compassionate, peopled with characters the reader never wants to let go, A MOST WANTED MAN is alive with humour, yet prickles with tension until the last heart-stopping page. It is also a work of deep humanity, and uncommon relevance to our times.
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This novel concerns the tale of a young half-starved Russian man, Issa, smuggled into Hamburg one evening. He is a devout Muslim who carries an improbable amount of cash in a purse around his neck. He soon meets Annabel, the idealistic German human rights lawyer who is determined to save him from potential deportation. For Annabel her client’s survival soon becomes more important than her own career. Via trying to assist Issa she meets Tommy Brue – a sixty-year-old Scottish banker. From these meetings a triangle of impossible love is born. At the same time spies from Germany, Russia and the UK converge on the innocents.
A number of the group had been looking forward to reading another le Carré novel having read previous pieces of work and watched the TV series The Night Manager. However, while many recognised that the novel was well-written, had an interesting story line and strong main characters, the majority view was one of disappointment. For most the story was sluggish and in places even boring. The introduction of the secret service agents half way through the book was inconsequential and agents from different countries all seemed to blend into one. The ending was described as inconclusive and rushed as the author tried to tie up too many loose ends in a short time.
The general view was that le Carré has written better novels and that this was a bit of a let-down.
DL
