This is a seriously depressing read. Don't do it if you're feeling at all depressed about the state of the world, what we've come to or, actually, if you're in any way shape or form depressed about anything at all. Take precautions: arrange to see a silly movie with a cheery friend when you're finished and proactively take a few doses of your favourite ssri.
A Most Wanted Man is about a Muslim Chechen, maybe, young refugee who has escaped to Hamburg from a jail in Turkey after being tortured there and in Russia. It is a novel showing the consequences of the war on terror and how it has influenced our compassion. There are good guys who want to help and bad guys who want to hurt. The characters are one dimensional but the novel is a good, if profoundly pessimistic, read. Le Carré seems to loathe the American counter-terrorism people; they are written as cartoons. However, I have a feeling that this might be his experience of them in real life and they are, in fact, just like that.
The most distressing thing about this book is that it is believable. Actually, the good guys aren't quite. I have a strong suspicion that what happens is heartbreakingly all too real.
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