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The Mission Song

The Mission Song

The Mission Song
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The Mission Song

by Le Carre, John

  • Used
  • very good
  • Hardcover
Condition
Very Good
ISBN 10
0316016748
ISBN 13
9780316016742
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About This Item

Little Brown. hardcover. Very Good. 6x1x9. May have highlighting or writing and wear to cover. May not include supplemental items like CDs or access codes. A portion of your purchase of this book will be donated to non-profit organizations.Over 1,000,000 satisfied customers since 1997! Choose expedited shipping (if available) for much faster delivery. Delivery confirmation on all US orders.

Synopsis

Abandoned by both his Irish father and Congolese mother, Bruno Salvador has long looked for someone to guide his life. He has found it in Mr. Anderson of British Intelligence.Bruno's African upbringing, and fluency in numerous African languages, has made him a top interpreter in London, useful to businesses, hospitals, diplomats-and spies. Working for Anderson in a clandestine facility known as the "Chat Room," Salvo (as he's known) translates intercepted phone calls, bugged recordings, snatched voice mail messages. When Anderson sends him to a mysterious island to interpret during a secret conference between Central African warlords, Bruno thinks he is helping Britain bring peace to a bloody corner of the world. But then he hears something he should not have....Building upon the box office success of le Carre's The Constant Gardener (like THE MISSION SONG, built around turmoil and conspiracy in Africa) and le Carre's laser eye for the complexity of the modern world (seen in Absolute Friends' prediction that the Iraq war would be based on phony and manipulated intelligence), this new novel is a crowning achievement, full of politics, heart, and the sort of suspense that nobody in the world does better.

Reviews

On Feb 7 2010, Feeney said:
Some (but not all) authorities agree with novelist John Le Carre, author of THE MISSION SONG, that Lake Kivu is the highest lake in all of Africa --- 4,788 feet -- and not just the highest in East Central Africa where it lies. Certainly, the land of Kivu enjoys a very attractive climate, is a tourist destination and has huge, largely untapped mineral deposits waiting to be extracted all about the lake. The eastern Kivu region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (its chief cities being Goma and Bukavu) is the beating heart of THE MISSION SONG. Kivu nestles close to Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and Lake Tanganyika. Fortunately, an insert in my copy of the book maps this all out. I had to refer to the maps frequently while reading this thought-provoking novel. *** An evil Western commercial group, "The Syndicate" wants to get richer by invading Kivu and installing a puppet ruler who will allow them to extract and market minerals and sell them directly to big international consumers. Currently, companies in neighboring Rwanda are skimming off all the profits. Kivu patriots hate this outside commerical control and would gladly throw their rascally African neighbors out. Problem is: the three main Kivu groups hate and fear one another more than they do the Rwandans. But the busy Syndicate, by promising elaborate bribes to leaders of the three Kivu factions, is now poised to get their signatures on a deal. Secret mercenary groups from the Syndicate will seize airports and key junctions within Kivu and leaders of the three warring Kivu groups will pop up to support them. A septuagenarian mystic religious leader, the Mwangaza ("Enlightment") preaches a peaceable, conciliatory doctrine of "the Middle Path." The Syndicate will install the Mwangaza as the figurehead leader of Kivu within the constitutional framework of Congo. The novel is built around one final, secret face-to-face meeting prior to scheduled but dreaded Congolese elections on an island in northern Europe among the three Kivu leaders (aka "the Alliance"), the Syndicate and the Mwangaza. *** The story is narrated by the conference's super interpreter Bruno Salvador aka Salvo. Half-Irish, half-Congolese, he is a master of all local African and many European languages. He is seconded (albeit deniably) to the Syndicate by a secret group within Her Majesty's Government (HMG) for a couple of days to help the Syndicate clinch its deal well before impending elections, elections which would leave Kivu in its traditional mess. *** Naive, feckless Salvo declares his unloving marriage with a British Journalist over. Instead, he lives to marry Kivu nurse Hannah, an ardent disciple of the Mwangaza. On the ground, however, during the ultra-secret conference where the parties affix their signatures to an unholy coup document, Salvo finds that he cannot stomach the lies, cynicism and even torture (imposed on one of the three Kivu representatives). He resolves therefore to torpedo the coup. And the rest of the novel is about whether and to what extent he succeeds. *** Given the current (2010) bloody war in Kivu, THE MISSION SONG, although fictional, makes timely reading. It is also hugely multicultural, with perspectives from Britain, France, the Congo, Rwanda, Lebanon and elsewhere. THE MISSION SONG has no flawless hero. Salvo is a coward. Even the Mwangaza is on the make. All motives are mixed. A psychological masterpiece. -OOO-

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Details

Bookseller
The Book Cellar US (US)
Bookseller's Inventory #
1388008
Title
The Mission Song
Author
Le Carre, John
Format/Binding
Hardcover
Book Condition
Used - Very Good
Quantity Available
1
ISBN 10
0316016748
ISBN 13
9780316016742
Publisher
Little Brown
Place of Publication
New York
This edition first published
September 19, 2006
Size
6x1x9
X weight
20 oz

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