My biggest sin is that I saw the movie version first. ( thanks to my Business Ethics book that listed the movie, not the book under extra reading at the back.) I mean it's not a bad movie by any means, in fact, it's a brilliant movie,rightly deserving all the praise it garnered over the years, including an Oscar-winning performance by Rachel Weisz. She was good. I mean really good. I was so moved by the movie that I couldn't resist the urge to read the book, despite knowing the story.
But after reading, you tend to think even for someone of his caliber of Fernando Meirelles(the director of the movie)had little to contribute in making it as highly effective as it is. The book provided everything. I guess it one of the complete true to book adaptation of a novel into a movie. This book is just world class. My first ' le Carré ' and I am already a huge fan that just the thought of so many unread books by the author gives me goosebumps.
The book starts with the gruesome death of activist Tessa Quayle along with her driver in a remote landscape somewhere in Africa. Initially believed the missing native doctor friend of Tessa, Arnold Bloom with whom she undertook this journey to be the murderer, the plot soon takes sinister route when Justin Quayle a shy, genteel diplomat and part-time gardener husband of Tessa starts his own journey to uncover the truth. The dangerous truth his wife sought. The truth so vile and immoral that would plummet you to the underbelly of ugliest human nature, wherein the mad quest for multi-millions are trodden above the dead bodies of the deprived.
With his new found courage bestowed on him by his dead valiant wife Justin embarks on a relentless journey that brings him close to his wife like he never was while she was alive.
I don't know how this book compares it to his other books for which the author is quite known for. But to me, this book with a deadly mix of literary writing with a soul-stirring plot vaults it to the top of my masterpiece shelf. I don't care if all his renowned books are the spy thriller. I begin to believe with Le Carre, the genre doesn't mean shit.
