The Broker
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| Author | John Grisham |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Thriller novel |
| Publisher | Doubleday |
| Released | January 11, 2005 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover, Paperback) |
| Pages | 368 pp (hardcover edition) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-385-51045-4 |
The Broker is a suspense novel written by American author John Grisham published in the United States on January 11, 2005. The novel follows the story of Joel Backman, a newly-pardoned prisoner who had tried to broker a deal to give the world's most powerful satellite surveillance system to the highest bidder.
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[edit] Plot summary
In the waning days of his failed four-year term as President of the United States, Arthur Morgan is performing those final duties associated with leaving office. Among those chores are reviewing requests for presidential pardons. The Director of the CIA makes a rare visit to the White House to suggest that Joel Backman, a former powerful Washington Beltway lobbyist who has spent six years in prison, be released. The President accedes to the wishes of the Director, and Backman finds himself hurriedly whisked from the prison and relocated in Italy (first in Treviso, then in Bologna) under an assumed name.
Unbeknownst to Backman, his pardon is not the result of an altruistic motive by the government. Backman had gone to prison as a result of a scheme to sell a classified satellite system's secrets to the highest bidder. The U.S. wants to know who owned the system and had access to its secrets -- either Russia, the People's Republic of China, Israel or Saudi Arabia. They theorize that once the broker is established in a new location with a new identity, the actual owner will exact its revenge on Backman by assassination, thereby revealing further useful intelligence.
[edit] Literary significance & criticism
The book has been hailed by some critics as a return to form for Grisham, while others lament it as a mere "trip to Italy" put into fiction form. A New York Times book review claimed that the description of an outgoing president who was "an idiot...but a clean one" seemed to be referring to President Bush, or perhaps to Bill Clinton's infamous last-minute presidential pardons in 2001. Nevertheless, The Broker made number one on the New York Times Best Seller list.
| Preceded by The Last Juror |
John Grisham Novels 2005 |
Succeeded by The Innocent Man |
[edit] Other languages
[edit] External links
| John Grisham's novels (as of 2006) | |
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1980s: A Time to Kill |
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| Non-Fiction | |
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2000s: The Innocent Man |
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