Bruno Salvador has worked on clandestine missions before. A highly skilled
interpreter, he is no stranger to the Official
Secrets Act. But this is the first time he has been asked to change his identity - and, worse still, his clothes - in the service of his country.
Whisked to a remote island to interpret a top-secret conference between no-name financiers and Congolese
warlords, Salvo''''s excitement is only heightened by memories of the night before he left London, and his life-changing encounter with the beautiful nurse, Hannah.
Exit suddenly the unassuming, happily married man Salvo believed himself to be. Enter in his place the pseudonymous Brian Sinclair: spy, lover - and perhaps, even, hero.
John le Carre''''s 20 th novel brings the reader from gales of laughter to head-in-the-hands misery as he tells, with unparalleled wordcraft, this tale of cynicism, greed, and power set in essence in the lands of the eastern Congo, well out of reach of the "government" in Kinshasa. Bruno''''s tale is told, in the first person, with quiet selflessness; much of what he conveys is between the lines.
Laced with humour and pathos, this is a book that had me accelerating towards the final chapter. A breathless read