Absolute Friends (Signed 1st Printing)

John Le Carre

ISBN 10: 0316000647 / ISBN 13: 9780316000642

Published by Little, Brown and Company, U.S.A., 2004

About this Item

A fine copy in near-fine unclipped dustjacket. This copy has been signed by Le Carre (aka David Cornwell) on the title page--signature only without any inscriptions. A tight and clean copy in fine condition. The dustjacket is complete and not price clipped-near-fine condition with slight rubbing to the back panel and protected in a new clear acrylic dustjacket covering. Le Carre is the master of British espionage thrillers. Free shipping within the USA.

Seller Inventory # cfe17824

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Absolute Friends (Signed 1st Printing)
• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company, U.S.A.
• Publication Date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0316000647
• ISBN 13: 9780316000642
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)

About this title

Synopsis

The friends of Absolute Friends are Ted Mundy, British soldier's son born 1947 in a shining new independent Pakistan, and Sasha, refugee son of an East German Lutheran pastor and his wife who have sought sanctuary in the West.
The two men meet first as students in riot-torn West Berlin of the late Sixties, again in the grimy looking-glass of Cold War espionage and, most terribly, in today's unipolar world of terror, counter-terror and the war of lies.

Review

John le Carré's Absolute Friends is his best in years, capturing the verve and mastery of the magnificent early work. In fact, as a prelude to the book, you could do worse than reread The Spy Who Came in from the Cold again, and be forcibly reminded how le Carré transformed the spy thriller 40 or so years ago. And the consolidation of his achievement came with the George Smiley sequence (inaugurated with Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy). As the Cold War came to an end, le Carré seemed to be in need of a new focus for his literary universe, but this was soon to come as the author explored newer social threats, with The Constant Gardener utilising the power of the pharmaceutical companies as nemesis, and producing yet another critical and popular success.

Absolute Friends, even before publication, had some of the best word of mouth any le Carré novel had enjoyed, and every word of it was justified. As a penetrating character study, it's nonpareil, with the (very different) friends of the title brilliantly realised.

Ted Mundy is the son of a British Infantry officer who left India under a cloud after partition, while Sasha is the crippled son of a religious German family who became a star of Far Left politics in the 1960s, at which point he encounters the ungainly Ted, taught by his father--and a committed girlfriend--to loathe British imperialism and all its current offshoots. In the present, Ted finds himself acting as an eccentric tour guide at Ludwig's palaces in Bavaria. When the two men meet again, they once more become involved in clandestine activities--with lethal results. If the author's own anti-Blair/Bush feelings are sometimes foregrounded, this is still le Carré at his considerable best, and a reminder of what a great talent the UK has in this writer. --Barry Forshaw