John le Carré

'Mesmerising' Sunday Times As an interpreter of African languages, Bruno Salvador is much in demand. He makes it a principle to remain neutral - no matter what he hears. But when he is summoned on a secret job for British Intelligence, he is told he will have to get his hands dirty. His mission is to help bring democracy to the Congo - democracy that will be delivered at the end of a gun barrel. The Mission Song is an excoriating depiction of a corrupt world where loyalty can be bought and war is simply an opportunity to settle old scores. 'Simply astonishing ... a formidably sophisticated work of fiction' Charles Cumming

The Mission Song

John Le Carre

Working as an interpreter for British Intelligence, Bruno Salvador, the abandoned son of an Irish father and Congolese mother, is sent to a mysterious island to interpret a secret conference among Central African warlords.

Cams Campbell

Just finished reading this, which is, I believe, the first of John le Carré's novels that I've read. I was lent it by a friend and fellow translator. 

The main character is an interpreter of various minority African languages and a few European ones. Having worked a little in this field, it was interesting to me in ways that it might perhaps not otherwise have been. 

It was rather slow paced until it reached the latter third, when the tension really began to mount. Stylistically, it seems much more literary than, say Robert Ludlum, so not quite as enjoyable on a superficial level but more memorable. 

The story focuses on the Congo. The premise is that an anonymous syndicate is putting up the funds to bring peace to the region. A secret conference is organised and held, seemingly by the UK intelligence services, between Congolese warlords on a remote island whose location is never revealed. The main character of the novel is the interpreter at the conference and we learn of his mixed loyalties and his ethics in his role as an interpreter. 

It was an enjoyable novel but not one that I would be too excited about recommending to anyone without at least a passing interest in linguistics or Africa. I'm glad I read it though.

John le Carre

Hailed everywhere as a masterpiece of suspense, John le Carré's return to Africa is the story of Bruno Salvador (aka Salvo), the 25-year-old orphaned love child of an Irish missionary and a Congolese woman. Quickly rising to the top of his profession as an interpreter, Salvo is dispatched by British Intelligence to a top-secret meeting between Western financiers and East Congolese warlords, where he hears things not meant for his ears - and is forced to interpret matters never intended for his reawoken African conscience. By turns thriller, love story, and comic allegory of our times, THE MISSION SONG recounts Salvo's heroically naïve journey out of the dark of Western hypocrisy and into the heart of lightness. "A ragingly readable adventure tale. . . . Every issue of today is here: class warfare, race, torture, immigration, language. But THE MISSION SONG is also a tender love story, a fast-paced thriller, and a story with as many brilliant minor characters as major. Like another favorite of mine, The Constant Gardener, it 'gets' the centrality of Africa to our world today." -Salon

The Mission Song

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