-
“Amazingly seductive, pulling you in deeper all the time.”
— David Halberstam, New York Times bestselling author
-
“Le Carré’s
narrative…illuminates the tangle of hypocrisy, politics, and passion roiling
beneath that steadfast British restraint.”
— Entertainment Weekly
-
“A cracking
thriller.”
— Economist
-
“The Constant Gardener reveals a new and
far more Dickensian le Carré…His novel unabashedly wears its heart on its
sleeve.”
— New York Times Book Review
-
“The Constant Gardener ranks with The Russia House as the best he has
produced since hitting his peak. If this new book is craft rather than art, it
is craft of the very highest caliber. It is no mean feat to entertain while
also making a reader think. Yet Le Carré pulls this off admirably, weaving together
several themes—corporate power, underdevelopment, globalization—that will
resonate with a wide audience.”
— BusinessWeek
-
“Brilliant.”
— Washington Post Book World
-
“Richly
detailed, full of righteous fire to offset its desperate prognosis, The Constant Gardener is a very
impressive piece of work. It is certainly one of John le Carré’s best books.”
— Times Literary Supplement (London)
-
“Tough-minded,
fast-moving, and uncompromising, The
Constant Gardener is a tale of personal transformation…eloquent…civilized
and forceful.”
— Boston Globe
-
“The book
breathes life, anger, and excitement.”
— Observer (London)
-
“Nobody
writing today manipulates suspense better. A powerful moving novel that stands
with le Carré’s best. It is, in order words, essential reading.”
— Sunday Telegraph (London)
-
“Le Carré
has never been angrier or more satisfyingly entertaining.”
— New York Daily News
-
“The Constant Gardener is not only about
the triumph of the gray men who rule the world. It’s also a love story, and as
we watch Justin take on his wife’s cause in spite of himself, we realize that
there are parts of ourselves that the gray men will never reach.”
— Booklist (starred review)
-
“Le Carré’s
manifold skills at scene setting and creating a range of fearsomely convincing
English characters, from the bluffly absurd to the irredeemably corrupt, are at
their smooth peak here. Both The Tailor
of Panama and Single and Single
were feeling their way toward this wholehearted assault on the way the world
works, by a man who knows much better than most novelists writing today how it
works. Now subject and style are one, and the result is heart wrenching.”
— Publishers Weekly
-
“The most
intimate of le Carré’s thrillers since the salad days of George Smiley…at its
core the old, familiar story of a decent man driven to avenge the wife he never
really knew.”
— Kirkus Reviews
-
“When his
activist wife is found raped and murdered in a remote part of Kenya, her
ineffectual husband, a career diplomat stationed in Nairobi, seeks out those
responsible. Many le Carré fans found this new opus a disappointment, but we
occasional visitors to his domain of espionage and sleuthing appreciate his
elegant style, rich characterization, and Graham Greenish exploration of moral
ambiguity. He reads as well as he writes. His sonorous voice and nuanced
delivery perfectly complement his authorial personality.”
— AudioFile