A Most Wanted Man

Written by John le Carré

Narrated by John le Carré

The acclaimed bestselling novel about spies in "The War on Terror"—now a major motion picture starring Philip Seymour Hoffman in one of his final roles. The film, coming in summer of 2014, also stars Rachel McAdams, Willem Dafoe, and Robin Wright.

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 Carré'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 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, 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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
• Release date: Oct 7, 2008
• ISBN: 9780743579247

John le Carré

John le Carré was born in 1931. His third novel, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, secured him a worldwide reputation, which was consolidated by the acclaim for his trilogy: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; The Honorable Schoolboy; and Smiley’s People. His novels include The Constant Gardner, The Little Drummer Girl, A Perfect Spy, The Russia House, Our Game, The Tailor of Panama, and Single & Single. He lives in Cornwall, United Kingdom.

Reviews for A Most Wanted Man

[neddludd · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Le Carre is masterful in his use of English; he almost seems to be using an evolved form of the language with the rest of us languishing behind. He sprinkles the work with phrases that could only be his--such as, "Life is a botch," rather than the more vulgar usage that everyone else makes do with. The author's complex plotting is legendary, and one does not find out who the baddies are until the last few pages. There are gradations of evil as well, the worst being what Le Carre, in another work, termed the "espinonacracy"; the administrative chiefs who fight for turf and budget and never have to experience, as the author puts it, "warm blood." Victims too endure different levels of suffering, from a person who has virtually lived in the torture-filled Guantanamos of the world to the street spies who are merely seeking to do their jobs (rather than their supervisors who don't care about right and wrong or promises made as long as they augment their power). Everyone is controlled by factors out of their control, and seeks to muddle through without losing too much self-respect. Some people, in fact, take advantage of a crisis to achieve a new perspective on life; others are painfully scarred by events and will never be the same. My one quibble is that Le Carre's oeuvre is so intellectualized, such a brilliant game of chess, that readers find it difficult to establish emotional bonds with characters--as some characters wonder around entire works trapped in an emotional void that is impossible to escape. The characters and the resolution of their crises are unforgettable, but rather than provoking an emotional response, the reader is left numb. Can people really be this horrible? That may be the way of the world, but it's certainly not escapist literature.

[aramissciant · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Solid spy thriller with a nice mix of mysterious characters from Chechens and Russians to a number of agents with the usual inter-agencies' rivalries. In the end though, the real villains turn out to be much more familiar. Good writing and pacing; lousy politics.

[nodosaurus · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Issa arrived in Germany with no past and access to large money. He didn't want the money as it was gained immorally according the the laws of Islam. The story unravels his past, and who he is, without providing a lot of definite answers. Issa is studied by several teams, oftenwith different interpretations of the past. This book is set in Germany, near the current time. It involves current issues, and feels typical for Le Carre's work. The story moves slowly at first, in Le Carre's style, there is little action, as subtlety and knowledge are key. The suspense builds well, but slowly. Not all of the questions are answered, but the events are clear.

[ozzieslim · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a novel that readers need to be prepared to invest a considerable amount of time in because this is not a quick read. Although the book isn't terribly long, it is heavy going and full of detail. Is there a pay off? Not in the traditional sense. More of a thought provoker than a wrap up in the end.A young Muslim, of somewhat indeterminate origin is transported illegally to Germany. He hangs around the Hamburg railway station until he identifies a fellow Muslim, who happens to be Turkish, and follows him home.He and his mother take in the illegal immigrant because of their beliefs in hospitality and the Koran, but not due to any militant factionism or inherent Islamism. The young man appears to understand some aspects of the Koran and Islam and not others which is puzzling to his hosts. An attorney who works for a civil rights and human rights agency is contacted by the family. He has a letter of introduction to a private bank and a private account. He does not want to touch the money because it was deposited their by his father - a high ranking KGB member during the Cold War. The money is ostensibly blood money. The young man wishes the money to be distributed to organizations to assist Chechen's who have been affected by Russian occupation. But here lies the rub. Islamic organizations who do such work, also funnel money into terrorist activities. The banker who has inherited his father's private bank, likewise inherits his fathers connections with the British and German secret services. The young attorney is also pulled into the affair.And so begins the political, espionage and private machinations and interests that are at odds with one another. Each player ? the accidental hosts, the banker, the attorney and the illegal immigrant become caught up in the much larger picture of the post 9/11 world: stop the funds, thus halting the spread of terrorism.The end result is a series of moral quandaries that the reader must ponder. Is helping someone who appears to harbor no terroristic ambitions and who has been tortured for his beliefs and managed to escape, right or wrong? And further, what will happen to the hosts? Can one be labeled a terrorist for aiding someone by accident? What are the repercussions if the hosts are only on permanent resident visas to their host country?What are the roles of private banks in holding and laundering blood money? What responsibilities do they have beyond acting as responsible stewards for the money with which they have been entrusted? What is the role they play between ?old money? (in this case funds that have sat in cold storage for 50 or more years) and the transfer of that money back to areas from which it was misappropriated in the first place? How liable or not are bankers? What are their fiduciary trusts?How far can a civil right attorney go? At what point do personal feelings and agendas start to cross and blur lines with professional responsibilities? Is that kind of work ultimately soul crushing as individuals get caught up in larger political and social agendas? How far can an individual go to help and when does it stop being aid and assistance and start to be aiding and abetting?Then there are the macro pictures and agendas: politics, secret services, anti-terrorist organizations, intelligence services, police at all levels. Can they really identify what is a true agenda? Can they really stop the flow of funds without actually hurting people on the ground who need those funds to stay alive and to fight terrorism from their end of the pipeline?As I said, this book raises more questions than it answers. However, it is a great jumping off point for book clubs who might like to use fiction to discuss these questions. Or for discussion groups on world affairs, to use fiction as a tool to open up a discussion about how the world works. Especially the post 9/11 world. This is a four star read but if you want a neat, tidy bow on the end of the story - you will be gravely disappointed.

[deepakjois_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This is the first John le Carre book that I have read (I have seen The Constant Gardener, but not sure if that counts in these times!). I really like non-sensationalist approach that le Carre takes in buiding a story around espionage and how the intelligence community around the world has been affected after the events of 9/11. This is in stark contrast to novel like The Afghan by Fredrick Forsyth.The book is very well researched, and as somebody who is interested in the subtle aspects of espionage and intelligence instead of the James Bond variety, I really enjoyed it.

[ma_washigeri · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Plus some more of a star. There are quite a lot of characters in the book but they are all well drawn individuals so no trouble keeping track. And most of them are pretty interesting and pretty nice - which makes for some tension as John le Carre is not known for his happy-ever-after endings. I thought it was well written and enjoyed the intelligent exploration of such current issues as migration, refugees and security services.

[doondeck · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

le Carre always shows the darkest side of the espionage business. No different in this work exploring the intelligence agencies activities in the so-called war on terror.

[Chatoorgoon Kavi · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Interesting characters but disappointing ending. Not sure what was accomplished by the end…

[stevesmits · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Le Carre takes us into the squalid realms of the anti-terrorism intelligence in the 21st century. Issa, a Chechneyan refugee from Turkish and Russian prisons, has made his way into Germany. His late father was a notorious corrupt Russian military officer who looted Soviet finances at the waning days of the USSR and deposited millions in a Hamburg-based British private bank led by Tommy Brue. Issa is heir to this illicit fortune but wants to avoid claiming it because of its nefarious origins. He is being aided with his immigrant status by Annabel Richter, a public interest lawyer, who wants him to file a claim as she thinks this will aid his asylum seeking. Issa appears to be naive and somewhat ethereal and genuinely devoted to Islam. He says that all he wants is support for medical training so he can return to Chechnya to aid his people. Annabel falls in love with Issa and he with her, but a romance doesn't ensue due to his Islam beliefs.The German, British and American intelligence agencies have been following this young man and seek his capture as he is alleged to be a violent Muslim terrorist. Whether he really is a jihadist is murky but the intelligence crowd is anxious to nab him. There is a rift in intentions among his pursuers. One faction headed by Gunther Bachmann wants to use him for counter-intelligence, particularly to co-opt a prominent Muslim leader in Hamburg who purports to be a moderate but whom they suspect is funneling money to terrorist groups. The other authorities want to make showy arrests that will advance the public's attention to their competence in combating the War on Terror.Our British banker has been troubled by the dirty Russian money accepted by his late father. His marriage is failing and he becomes infatuated with the much younger lawyer. Both he and the lawyer are "turned" by the intelligence agents as they think by cooperating they can protect Issa from deportation back to Russia or Turkey where he will be tortured again. They agree to arrange a meeting between Issa and Dr. Abdullah, the imam who is a money launderer for the terrorists, where Issa will turn over funds to Abdullah for charities that are really a front for terrorists groups. Bachmann's intent for the meeting is to confront Abdullah in his crimes and use him to dig deeper into the finances of terrorists.In Le Carre's sly style the German, British and American operatives are working at deceiving each other as well as Brue and Annabel. The dramatic ending reveals a heavy-handed snatch by the Americans, Brits and some Germans that betrays Bachmann, Brue, Annabel and Issa. Manipulation, falsity and treachery are themes that Le Carre extracts from the real world of intelligence work.

[eyejaybee · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

When the Berlin Wall came down and the Warsaw Pact crumbled I wondered how traditional espionage writers such as John le Carre would cope with the bedrock of their genre so completely excised. Le Carre seemed entirely unfazed and moved seamlessly to address issues arising from the emergence of the former Soviet republics and stresses in sub-Saharan Africa.With 'A Most Wanted Man' he moves on to the 'war against terror' and the depredations wreaked by the international banking world. The novel is set in Hamburg several years into the war on terror. The principal protagonists here are Tommy Brue, an expatriate British banker running the family bank, Annabel Richter, a human rights lawyers striving to exorcise her guilt over being born into a welathy and prominent family, Issa Karpov, a Chechen Muslim emigre , and Gunther Bachman, world-weary intelligence officer in the German homeland security forces. Bachman has to contend almost as fiercely with his rival German security forces as he does with terrorist suspects because of the additional sensitivity about Islamist extremism in Hamburg as that was where the 9/11 terrorists trained. Although a pillar of rectitude himself, Brue knows that his father was less innocent having established a series of very dubious accounts known as Lipizzaners. The mysterious Issa, who has made his way to Hamburg from Russia via Sweden claims to be the son of one of the Lipizzaner clients. Annabel Richter and Gunther Bachman are both drawn to investigate further.Le Carre manages the plot very deftly, particularly the tensions between the competing Germans security organisations. Richter is also very plausible - it might have been easy to fall into cliches with her liberal stance, but le Carre never makes that error.My one slight cavil with the book was that it seemed to have been drawn out just a little bit too far.

[mmyoung_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

If I were to sum up this book in one word it would be _unconvincing_. Le Carre continues to be weak in his characterizations of women and his treatment of the sympathetic Muslim characters seemed closer to magical realism than realism. I felt the author was substituting flavour for substance. It is not the ambiguity of the characters and the problems that I found disappointing -- it is the fact that I felt no insight into the struggles the different characters. Too many of the characters seemed to have no "there" and so I felt their choices were arbitrary -- that is to say that the characters acted in a certain way because the plot of the novel required them to do so rather than the plot arises from the nature of the characters.

[gmmartz · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I read A Most Wanted Man when it was first published, saw the movie last week, and decided to re-read it. I'm glad I did. Although it's not a spy novel starring George Smiley by any means, LeCarre's trademark dialogue, exceptional writing, and intricate plotting are all present. It's not a book that screamed 'you have to make a movie out of this' (which is why I re-read it, to see if I missed something the first time), but the interaction among the characters and the ambiguity of the situations throughout the story end up being the basis for a good book and a pretty fair movie.

The story itself, which begins in a fairly lighthearted manner, quickly becomes complicated by strange behavior on the part of the illegal immigrant, German rules and regulations, a liberal female lawyer that everyone ends up falling in love with, the War on Terror, a bank that may have played too nicely with bad people in the past, international competition between spy agencies, and many other complexities. In typical fashion, LeCarre does a nice job and takes his time developing the characters, so throughout the cat and mouse scenarios I was able to keep the players straight. The end wasn't exactly a scenario that was expected, but in retrospect it should have been.

[mbmackay · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

John Le Carre continues to perform well. Though the narrative flags in the first third when he tries, mostly unsuccessfully, to paint the thoughts, doubts and relationship possibilities of his female lead, he recovers the strong narrative drive and the book becomes a winner. The ending is unpredictable but stitches up the tale very effectively. Good stuff. Read February 2010.

[kanikoski · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I have long been an avid reader of le Carr?, but for some reason took a hiatus after 'Single & Single', which, maybe due to my own frame of mind at the time, I found less satisfying than normal. However, I'm glad that I made a belated return to 'A Most Wanted Man'. Chapter One was like getting on a familiar but slightly rusty bicycle, and it took a couple of turns to get going, but once into Chapter Two, I never looked back. As has been said a million times, le Carr? is a master of story-telling, and his deceptively easy flowing style is compelling. There may be a touch or two of the formulaic in the plotting by this stage, but that does not detract from engagement with character, which I find to be at the heart of this novel. Furthermore, although only narrating at the tip of the iceberg, so to speak, the author clearly communicates a much larger passion for the subject-matter than the words intrinsically convey. As ever, it is an overriding sense of the battle between justice and injustice, which has been a constant at least since 'The Spy Who Came in from the Cold', that lifts a le Carr? thriller into the realms of literature.

[aadyer · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A good thriller, with a surprisingly accessible beginning that combines just the right amount of menace, malice, suspicion & suspense to get you hooked. Interesting but ultimately shallowly drawn characters then spend the middle third of the book getting bogged down in intelligence protocol & process. This isn't excitement, but with the proper pacing could have been very gripping. Instead it was interesting but not involving. Worth a read, but not a reread, & certainly not a book I'll be keeping.

[vguy_6 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Over elaborate , and who cares? 3 lines of story centred on a refugee, presumed Chechen: the lad himself, a Scottish banker resident in Hamburg who finds himself the fellow's sponsor, and the German police. The lad has had a complicated journey through various countries and their prisons, he's pretty inarticulate and a mystery - so far so intriguing. His host, a Muslim boxer settled in Hamburg, at first wants nothing to do with him, but then, somewhat randomly comes to consider him a brother. The banker is drawn in by some tie in his own past, also kept mysterious, and from being the cool- headed financier, switches to funding the lad, also pretty randomly. The police as so often in le Carr?, and perhaps in life, are embroiled in interdepartmental strife and u fathomable relationships, sexual and other. As reader/ listener I just couldn't get involved. Apart from the banker, the characters are ciphers, and even the banker's reactions are presented rather mechanistically. I used to enjoy le Carr?'s cold pessimism, especially Spy who came in, but this is overcomplex, lifeless stuff. I gave up.The reading by Michael jayston didn't help: characters poorly differentiated and almost every foreign word mispronounced.

[sharonlflynn_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I found this a little bit confusing at first, I couldn't work out who each character was or how they were connected. As the book went on, though, I got caught up in the story. It's about a Chechen man who is smuggled into Germany. The man, Issa, is a rebel and a "known" terrorist who has been tortured. He makes contact with a lawyer, Annabel Richter, and a wealthy British banker, Tommy Brue. He needs their help in order to stay in Germany and become a doctor. As the story unfolds, we see that Frau Richter desperately wants to help Issa, and Mr Brue's bank has a past which means that Issa has claim to millions held in its vaults. Enter German, British and US Intelligence!

[rainpebble_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A Most Wanted Man by John le Carre; (4*)A top notch thrilling story from a spy-master. Intricate plot, fascinating characters, all the twists and turns to keep you guessing and then hoping until the end. I loved it!

[clara53_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A page-turner, as most of his books.

[jeremyfarnumlane · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Caveat emptor: this review is mildly spoilery, in a broad, non-specific way.

John Le Carre does a lot of things very well, like create dense, fascinating plots, and characters that are interesting and feel complex and plausible. A Most Wanted Man has all of that, but I found myself dissatisfied at the very end. Not in the cynical, Le Carre-ian way, where you come to realize that nothing truly positive can come from international intelligence operations (though there was some of that, for sure), but rather in the way he characterized American intelligence operatives as arrogant assholes who do whatever they feel like, everybody else's feelings be damned, and ethics can take a hike, too.

I'm not saying that's an inaccurate portrayal. It likely is, at least in some cases. But it's also lazy and uninteresting and trite. What's more, as an American, I want to see at least complex portrayals of American characters (well, I want to see it in all characters, Americans included), if not positive ones. Simply showing up around the edges of the story being vaguely menacing, then swooping in and effing everybody over, spouting phrases like "ass-kicking justice" like some sort of cartoon isn't enough.

It's frustrating, because Le Carre is so very good at nuance. Everybody's good and everybody's bad. Usually. Just not here.

[parthurbook · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

There's a fine line between 'meticulous detail' and 'ponderous' which le Carre (at least for me) has always straddled. This novel of 'war-on-terror' spycraft is no exception, building tension very slowly, while examining the multiple shades of grey in a black-and-white world. It's great strength is the examination of cultural differences between nations trying to right wrongs. Interesting, studied and methodical - if not wildly entertaining.

[abrahamhyatt-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Very solid, emotionally taught le Carré, right up until the ham-fisted, trite ending. I miss the old le Carré.

[ectopicbrain · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A compelling story. Just read his most recent book too[Our Kind of Traitor] and it's sad that both books end badly for the innocents that are recruited in the 'spy' business.

[jreeder_15 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This troubling story deals with the limits of modern spy craft as it applies to finding and bringing terrorists to justice. Innocent people are falsely accused and the cascade of frightening events sweep others into a snare set by a multi-national anti-terrorist team.

[idiotgirl · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Audiobook. Interesting that LeCarre is moving into the post 9-11 world of terrorism. As always, it was a good read. In the end this one seemed to have a political point for the ending. That did disappoint me. I am interested in LeCarre because he engages political issues and writes complex psychological narratives. This book just didn't quite work for me and so disappointed.

[mont1ms · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Masterful as ever, but the end was appalling - up to the last I was hoping for a positive twist, but should have known better - I was shattered by the ending.

[mojomomma_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Spy novels aren't my thing. I really had to force myself to get through this book. Lots of characters, many with multiple names. The characters seemed stereotyped to me--the misunderstood, but fiercely Islamic victim; the beautiful, stiff-upper-lip woman lawyer who everyone falls in love with, the slightly bumbling banker coasting to retirement. Blah, blah, blah. And of course, the Americans come along in the last 5 pages and screw up the best-laid plans of the Brits and Germans spies.

[frisbeesage · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A Most Wanted Man is a spy novel extraordaire with themes more relevant to today's issues then most other thrillers I've read. Highlighting the war on terror and they way it has altered rationality, this is a book that should hit close to home for anyone. Issa, a young Russian with horrific scars, comes mysteriously to be in Hamberg. A devout Muslim, he is quickly under suspcion from all sides. Annabel, a young German lawyer is determind to prevent the government from deporting him and she drags a wealthy British banker into her cause. It's a game of cat and mouse as the rival spies try to find proof of Issa's terrorist connections. I listened to this book and thoroughly enjoyed it. John le Carre reads the book himself, and he does a good job of it. I found the plot to be frighteningly plausible. I liked the main characters and especially enjoyed the relationships between Issa, Annabelle, and Tommy Brue. This is a book peopled with realistic people caught in unimaginably terrifying circumstances!

[chris469_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Well-written, forward-moving plot, good characters. Nice to see an intelligently written book of this genre. The storyline is a little less complex and more discernible than some of Le Carre's older spy thrillers. But still - at the risk of sounding like the Emperor in "Amadeus" complaining that a Mozart piece has "too many notes" - I think it has "too many characters" at least among the secondary players that we find in the German, American and British intelligence and police services -- hard to keep everyone straight. A movie version might help in this regard. But the main characters: Brue, Annabel, Bachman, and Issa, are all original and interesting personae. There's an occasional bit of political/editorial commentary inserted into the mouths of some of the characters, but it's not laid on too heavily (as in Crichton's "State of Fear" for example) and frankly I'm pretty much in agreement with the author's perspective anyway.

[sturlington_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A Most Wanted Man is a present-day spy thriller set in Hamburg, Germany. The titular man is a Chechen, possibly a terrorist, certainly once a tortured prisoner, who has entered Germany illegally, revealed himself as the heir of a large amount of dirty money, and is thus wanted by the intelligence agents of three countries: Germany, Britain and the U.S.This was my first le Carre, an author who I am certainly familiar with, and I don't think this was the best one to start out with, to be honest. Le Carre's writing is clear, precise, and very readable, but this story was lacking in excitement and genuine characters. The only character who I could truly empathize with was the banker, who was having some sort of midlife crisis and seemed to only muddle through the intrigue he found himself caught up in. I couldn't understand the fascination that Issa, the wanted man, held for all the people he met, and the female lawyer who inexplicably falls in love with him seems two-dimensional in her flatness. Most frustrating of all, the main character, the disillusioned German spy, was a cipher to me, and I felt like understanding him was the key to understanding the book. On top of that frustration, I thought that the overall tone of the book was anti-American and way too black-and-white. I would have appreciated more nuance when dealing with the modern-day war on terror.I'm not sure if I'll try another of le Carre's books. This one seemed so promising, but ultimately disappoints. I will probably see the movie adaptation, anyway, since it is Philip Seymour Hoffman's last film.Book club pick (2014).