The pardon
The pardon (original title: The Broker ) is a novel by the American author John Grisham from 2005 .
content
As a last official act, the outgoing US President pardons the Washington white collar criminal Joel Backman. He was sentenced to twenty years in prison for possessing software that could control secret satellite systems.
But nobody knows that Backman was pardoned only under pressure from the CIA . However, the Agency is not interested in Backman, but in his information about the satellite systems. In a night-and-fog operation, Backman is taken out of prison and brought to Europe . There he gets a new look and a new identity.
First he comes to Treviso , Italy , where he meets the CIA agent Luigi before he takes him to Bologna . There he learns the Italian language , fits into life and establishes close contact with his language teacher Francesca.
While he lives in Italy , the CIA leaks bit by bit information about him and his whereabouts to the Mossad and other intelligence agencies. The CIA hopes to get backman's information about the satellite system without doing much work. But over time, he gets an inkling of the CIA's plans, as he notices that his apartment is searched almost every day.
After a long game of cat and mouse, he finally manages to escape from the surveillance thanks to the help of his teacher Francesca. He flees first to Switzerland , then to the USA , where he meets with his son and begins negotiations with the new US government . At the end of these negotiations he stands as a free man with a new identity and a new life.
It should be mentioned critically that there are geographical errors, for example Lugano and Lake Lugano are considered to belong completely to Italy. In addition, the translation has careless mistakes, noticeable for example in the spelling of proper names.
literature
- John Grisham: The pardon. Heyne, ISBN 3-453-01204-6