Book description
It was a perfectly ordinary Friday afternoon in tropical Panama
until Andrew Osnard barged into Harry Pendel's shop asking to be
measured for a suit.
So begins John le Carré's dazzling new novel set in contemporary
Panama, reluctant host and future owner of the second largest gateway
to world trade.
Harry Pendel, Jewish-Irish foster child, is the charismatic
proprietor and guiding genius of Pendel and Braithwaite Limitada,
Tailors to Royalty, formerly of Savile Row, through whose doors passes
everyone who is anyone in Central America. Andrew Osnard, mysterious
and fleshly, is an Old Etonian and spy. His secret mission is
two-pronged: to keep a watchful eye on the political manoeuvrings
leading up to the American handover of the Panama Canal at midday on
31st December 1999; and to secure for himself the immense private
fortune that has until now churlishly eluded him.
And Osnard knows more about Pendel than Pendel knows himself . . .
Already acclaimed as one of the most skilled, entertaining and
important novelists writing today, John le Carré has written a book of
such poignant drama, perfect characterisation, humour and sadness that
it will be regarded as a masterpiece.
