Police procedural set in PARIS and AVEYRON
Absolute Friends
Location(s): Bavaria, Berlin, England, Pakistan
Genre(s): Thriller
Era(s): 1960s, 2000s
In previous novels, le Carré has delighted in taking us on a mystery tour. This time, the mystery is located in character more than plot. The absolute friends of the title are Ted Mundy and his East German friend, Sasha, the crippled son of a Lutheran priest with troubling links to the Nazis. The plot turns on the elucidation of this ‘absolute friendship’. If there is a criticism of the novel, it is that we don’t quite understand what tie it is that binds Sasha so closely to Ted. Inevitably, we discover they are double-agent partners for British intelligence, but that’s an effect, not a cause, and their odd mutual idealism is too burdened with historical exposition to animate fully the human side of a gripping story. The Guardian
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