Synopses & Reviews
Frightening, heartbreaking, and exquisitely calibrated, John le Carré's new novel opens with the gruesome murder of the young and beautiful Tessa Quayle near northern Kenya's Lake Turkana, the birthplace of mankind. Her putative African lover and traveling companion, a doctor with one of the aid agencies, has vanished from the scene of the crime. Tessa's much older husband, Justin, a career diplomat at the British High Commission in Nairobi, sets out on a personal odyssey in pursuit of the killers and their motive.
A master chronicler of the deceptions and betrayals of ordinary people caught in political conflict, le Carré portrays, in The Constant Gardener, the dark side of unbridled capitalism. His eighteenth novel is also the profoundly moving story of a man whom tragedy elevates. Justin Quayle, amateur gardener and ineffectual bureaucrat, seemingly oblivious to his wife's cause, discovers his own resources and the extraordinary courage of the woman he barely had time to love.
The Constant Gardener is a magnificent exploration of the new world order by one of the most compelling and elegant storytellers of our time.
Review
"[T]he most intimate of le Carré's thrillers since the salad days of George Smiley....Under all the sumptuous detail, sensitive psychology, and incisive condemnation of industrial cartels, this is still at its core the old, familiar story of a decent man driven to avenge the wife he never really knew." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"[Le Carré's] most passionately angry novel yet....[A] wholehearted assault on the way the world works, by a man who knows much better than most novelists writing today how it works....[T]he result is heart-wrenching." Publishers Weekly
Review
"Tough-minded, fast-moving, and uncompromising. The Constant Gardener is a tale of personal transformation...eloquent...civilized and forceful." Boston Sunday Globe
Review
"The Constant Gardener reveals a new and far more Dickensian le Carré....Taking sides with the angels, his novel unabashedly wears its heart on its sleeve." Rand Richards Cooper, The New York Times Book Review
Review
"With The Constant Gardener, le Carré proves once more that the themes of deception and betrayal that run through his work need nothing as dramatic as the Cold War for their expression; unbridled capitalism works just as well in exposing the flaws of human morality." The Chicago Tribune
Review
"Richly detailed, full of righteous fire to offset its desperate prognosis, The Constant Gardener is a very impressive piece of work. It is certainly on of John le Carré's best." Sean O'Brien, Times Literary Supplement (U.K.)
Review
"Le Carré is...a thoroughgoing literary artist....He deserves to be considered a major writer....The Constant Gardener is a worthy addition to his large and consistently impressive oeuvre." San Francisco Chronicle
Synopsis
Featuring his strongest heroine since The Russia House, le Carré's The Constant Gardener combines the international suspense of his Cold War thrillers with the exotic romanticism of The Little Drummer Girl. This is a masterful novel by one of the most compelling and elegant storytellers of our time.
Synopsis
THE CONSTANT GARDENER Tessa Quayle--young, beautiful, and dearly beloved to husband Justin--is gruesomely murdered in northern Kenya. When Justin sets out on a personal odyssey to uncover the mystery of her death, what he finds could make him not only a suspect, but also a target for Tessa's killers.
A master chronicler of the betrayals of ordinary people caught in political conflict, John le Carre portrays the dark side of unbridled capitalism as only he can. In The Constant Gardener he tells a compelling, complex story of a man elevated through tragedy, as Justin Quayle--amateur gardener, aging widower, and ineffectual bureaucrat--discovers his own natural resources and the extraordinary courage of the woman he barely had time to love.
Synopsis
THE CONSTANT GARDENER Tessa Quayle--young, beautiful, and dearly beloved to husband Justin--is gruesomely murdered in northern Kenya. When Justin sets out on a personal odyssey to uncover the mystery of her death, what he finds could make him not only a suspect, but also a target for Tessa's killers.
A master chronicler of the betrayals of ordinary people caught in political conflict, John le Carre portrays the dark side of unbridled capitalism as only he can. In The Constant Gardener he tells a compelling, complex story of a man elevated through tragedy, as Justin Quayle--amateur gardener, aging widower, and ineffectual bureaucrat--discovers his own natural resources and the extraordinary courage of the woman he barely had time to love.
About the Author
John le Carré was born in 1931. His third novel, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, secured him a worldwide reputation, which was consolidated by the acclaim for his trilogy: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; The Honorable Schoolboy; and Smiley’s People. His novels include The Little Drummer Girl, A Perfect Spy, The Russia House, Our Game, The Tailor of Panama, and Single & Single. He lives in Cornwall, United Kingdom.