The Constant Gardener
Now a major motion picture from Fernando Meirelles, the Academy Award-nominated director of City of God
The Constant Gardener is a magnificent exploration of the new world order by one of the most compelling and elegant storytellers of our time. TheMore Now a major motion picture from Fernando Meirelles, the Academy Award-nominated director of City of God
The Constant Gardener is a magnificent exploration of the new world order by one of the most compelling and elegant storytellers of our time. The novel opens in northern Kenya with the gruesome murder of Tessa Quayle--young, beautiful, and dearly beloved to husband Justin. 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 among his own colleagues, but a target for Tessa's killers as well.
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. Less
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Darwin8u rated it it was amazing
over 1 year ago
“The most peaceble people will do the most terrible things when they're pushed.”
― John le Carré, The Constant Gardener
I have been a little reluctant to read le Carré's post-Cold War, post-Smiley novels. Part of my reluctance was borne of some false assumption that le Car. Read full review
Solistas rated it really liked it
Πολυπρόσωπη, καθηλωτική αφήγηση απ'τον μαιτρ στα καλύτερά του. Στα συν η Κένυα που βρίσκεται στο προσκήνιο (κ είναι η χώρα-κόλλημα φέτος), ότι είχα στα χέρια μου ένα ταλαίπωρο Bellάκι που είχα βρει για 1ε στην Αμοργό πριν 2 χρόνια (τα είχα βρει σχεδόν όλα) κ ότι δεν θυμόμ. Read full review
Eric_W rated it really liked it
over 3 years ago
One of the reviewers on Amazon complained that this book had little to do with gardening. Good grief!
I think Le Carre has made the transition from Cold War spy novels to contemporary issue thrillers quite handsomely. In this book, he really goes after the pharmaceutical. Read full review
Zanna rated it it was ok
almost 3 years ago
I made rapid progress through this long book thanks to an intriguing plot, empathy with the protagonists, a serious socio-political backdrop and plenty of interesting peripheral characters.
Le Carre has been very careful to make Tessa and her husband Justin humble, passion. Read full review
Bmbs rated it it was ok
over 3 years ago
In the 60’s I distinctly remember reading two of the authors earlier books, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold and the Looking Glass War. With no pun intended I read them in a small town in Germany, a town located not too far distant from where the fictitious events of the. Read full review
Kaitlin Turner rated it really liked it
over 8 years ago
My first impression of the book was not good. The beginning was slow, and seemed like something my Dad might read; something mundane and unoriginal with cheap thrills. I kept on though, and soon found myself completely enthralled. I could not have been more wrong. Not onl. Read full review
Sheila rated it liked it
almost 5 years ago
My first Le Carre, so I was expecting to be thrilled, something cat-and-mouse type of story. After all, someone killed Justin Quayle's wife while she's on a perfectly justifiable, if not very dangerous mission. And it was not a quick death like an assassination----she was. Read full review
Maura rated it it was ok
over 9 years ago
I think this is the only time in my life I've actually liked the movie better than the book, but perhaps my expectations were too high (I hadn't read or heard of LeCarré before this). Basically I'd thought that since it was about pharmaceutical company conspiracies to tes. Read full review
Fran rated it it was amazing
over 3 years ago
I had never read anything by John Le Carre before. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. He is a masterful writer who develops interesting characters and describes scenes with poetic intensity. This is the sort of book I could see myself rereading in years to come. There is so. Read full review
Leslie rated it it was amazing
over 6 years ago
One of my favourite Le Carre novels, right up there with The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and the Smiley books. It works on every level: as a thriller, as suspense fiction, as character study, as social and economic critique. Truly moving and compelling.
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Book Details
Paperback. 496 pages
Published August 26th 2005 by Scribner (first published 2001
ISBN13 9780743287203 Edition Language English Original Title The Constant Gardener Characters Tessa Quayle, Justin Quayle, Sandy Woodrow, Arnold Bluhm
About this Author
John le Carré, the pseudonym of David John Moore Cornwell (born 19 October 1931 in Poole, Dorset, England), is an English author of espionage novels. Le Carré has resided in St Buryan, Cornwall, Great Britain, for more than 40 years, where he owns a mile of cliff close to Land's End.
Tessa distinguished absolutely between pain observed and pain shared. Pain observed is journalistic pain. It’s diplomatic pain. It’s television pain, over as soon as you switch off your beastly set. Those who watch suffering and do nothing about it, in her book, were little better than those who inflicted it. They were the bad Samaritans.
The most peaceble people will do the most terrible things when they're pushed.