Absolute Friends - Tapa dura

The end of the Cold War stalled the career of many espionage novelists, and although John le Carr seemed to lack direction for a time, it is he, more than any of his contemporaries, who has triumphantly found fertile new areas for his skills, and (once again) a new le Carr book is an event. Absolute Friends is a masterly novel spanning over 50 years, and is a fascinating chronicle of the modern era. The friends of the title are Ted Mundy, a British soldier's son born in a newly-independent Pakistan, and Sasha, refugee son of an East German pastor who has sought sanctuary in the West. The two men meet first as students in the riot-torn West Berlin of the late Sixties, again in the era of Cold War espionage and, finally, in today's world of terror and counter-terror; le Carr 's new novel delivers the kind of non-pareil writing that has been his trademark since the early books.

Ted Mundy, British soldier's son born 1947 in the new Republic of Pakistan and Sasha, son of an East German Lutheran pastor, first meet as students in West Berlin in the late 60s, then again in the grimy looking-glass of Cold War espionage and, most terribly, in the modern world of terror.