This novel takes you inside the head of a sound thief
This le Carré spy thriller is the first-person account of a multilingual interpreter who is drafted by the British Secret Service to both translate during and eavesdrop on a clandestine meeting. Bruno Salvador is a loyal UK subject residing in London. His mixed-race background is Irish and Congolese. His father was a Catholic missionary priest and his mother was a nun. In the coverup of his shameful birth in Congo, his mother was banished into obscurity and his father turned him over to a mission orphanage. The title refers to a hymn of praise sung by schoolchildren and will become a significant plot element.
The secret meeting gathers an unlikely band of conspirators. They are planning a false-flag operation at the airport in Kivu. That mission’s objective is to overthrow the corrupt national government in Kinshasa and install a revered populist leader, one Mwangaza, whose motives might or might not also be corrupt.
The Mission Song: A Novel by John le Carré (Little, Brown)
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