Absolute Friends - John Le Carr

ABSOLUTE FRIENDS is a superbly paced novel spanning fifty-six years, a theatrical masterstroke of tragi-comic writing, and a savage fable of our times, almost of our hours.

The friends of the title 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.

Deriving its scale from A PERFECT SPY and its passion from THE CONSTANT GARDENER, Le Carr's new novel presents us with magical writing, characters to delight, and a spellbinding story that enchants even as it challenges.

John le Carr was born in 1931. His third novel, THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD, secured him a wide reputation which was consolidated by the acclaim for his trilogy TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY, THE HONOURABLE SCHOOLBOY and SMILEY'S PEOPLE. His other novels include THE CONSTANT GARDENER, A MOST WANTED MAN and OUR KIND OF TRAITOR.

'Absolute friends is classic le Carre and that means fiction of a very high order.' Roy Hattersley, Independent on Sunday

The master has not lost his touch . . . one of his most enthralling creations.
A.N. Wilson, Telegraph

No reader, whatever his politics, could fail to be moved by the passion and intelligence of le Carre's latest.
Publishers Weekly

'The master has not lost his touch . . . one of his most enthralling creations' A.N. Wilson, Telegraph

'This is ultimately a powerful, passionate and finely-crafted novel, rich in rage and indignation. At 72, the man affords himself the anger of youth at last. It is a timely and perhaps even prescient novel which reflects the concerns of a great many people who remain unconvinced about the war in Iraq' Herald

Angry, pessimistic and deeply romantic
Joan Smith, Independent

'Le Carre's theatrical characters and dialogue make this a masterful novel, thematically serious but written with wit, control and breathless pace.' Waterstones Quarterly

Absolute Friends is classic le Carr and that means fiction of a very high order
Roy Hattersley, Independent on Sunday

'Truly thrilling' - Financial Times

We need only to read the first page of Absolute Friends to know that once again we are in the accomplished hands of a master storyteller
P.D. James, Mail on Sunday

Few could fail to be thrilled by the unbridled rage that fuels his storytelling. If he was seething when he wrote The Constant Gardener, he is now incandescent . . . le Carr brings the thriller face to face with contemporary politics and, in the process has once again demonstrated his mastery of his chosen genre
Robert McCrum, Observer

'Absolute Friends is vintage John le Carre: complex, often sardonically funny, always galvanically written. In fact, his best book in years.' - Daily Express

'Le Carre is one of those rare and frequently undervalued novelists who combine a major literary talent with the ability to provide a narrative of compelling power. We need only to read the first page of his new novel, ABSOLUTE FRIENDS, to know that once again we are in the accomplished hands of a master storyteller.' P D James, Mail on Sunday

A literary master for a generation
Observer

Thoroughly gripping
Sunday Times

'Le Carre's indignation not only gives ABSOLUTE FRIENDS a hard contemporary edge but it also seems to have reinvigorated him. At 72, he is writing with a passion and urgency that were missing from some of the books that followed the collapse of communism. Le Carre's writing is masterful. He has no peers when it comes to evoking the shadowy menace of power and his skill at driving the plot of a thriller forward by the development of character is matchless. But loud and clear through the elegantly savage writing, le Carre's voice is to be heard expressing his moral outrage at the world around him. ABSOLUTE FRIENDS is one of his very best books.' Andrew Vine, Yorkshire Post

'John le Carre has been redefining the conventions of the spy thriller, detective novel and adventure story for 50 years. His stature is now such that he is widely considered to be one of our greatest living novelists. His themes are big: loyalty, betrayal and the impossibility of fully knowing another human being. The fiction he crafts around these themes foregrounds character over plot without allowing the tension to slip.
Throughout his career Le Carre has sought to maintain a low profile: as a narrator, he is as self-effacing as his enigmatic protagonists. In Absolute Friends he comes in from the cold.' Financial Times

This is vintage John le Carre
The Times

'Thoroughly gripping' - Sunday Times

Le Carr poses deep spiritual questions about the damage [the human] race has done, and continues to do, both to the planet and to itself. He does so in a page-turner which reminds us that the master storyteller of the Smiley books has lost none of his cunning
A.N. Wilson, Daily Mail, on THE CONSTANT GARDENER

'With ABSOLUTE FRIENDS Le Carre is back on form. It is his best book for years, probably since A PERFECT SPY. He has founda worthy enemy, a target for his moral indignation. Moreover he has hit a contemporary tune again. This is an anti-war novel and, very fiercely, an anti-American one. It's written with passion.' Allan Massie, Scotsman