Human tragedy as an occurrence is very much similar to clay; it can either drive humans to the vilest acts of insanity or the most humane of actions. Natural disasters, accidents and countless other instances bear witness to such acts each day & everyday across the world. Tragedy in individual life of a fictional character on the other hand gives rise to literary gems (a la Shakespeare & the gang) or movies (read tear jerker/pay back movies). The backdrop of John Le Carre’s The Constant Gardener has a tragic backdrop of a wife who is a devoted human rights activist getting murdered in a barren wasteland in Kenya in a most gruesome way. What follows is a husband’s quest on the road to the truth. Heard that before you say? Well it’s a different quest here and a different landscape.

The plot line is as simple as what I wrote above but there are sub plots and characters that would seem a lot more flesh and blood than many run-of-the-mill thrillers we come across. The best trait of this book is how human it is. The villains are not cartoonish; they are human like you or me. No one is an absolute black or white, they are doing what they must in order to survive. There are a lot of betrayals here as well, individual as well as on the on broader perspectives: in the name of love, country and that stubborn mule named duty. For individual betterments they jump sides and tip scales in seconds, you have met people like them before at your offices and your living space. The dialog is sometimes labyrinthine and the protagonist is an unlikely one who is polite to a fault and sometimes too good to be true. Like some of us mere mortals, he realizes the worth of love once that flame gets extinguished.

The tale drags at places but that does not make me want to reduce a star in the rating scale, it is a solid five star book for me. Human & Animal rights activists have sometimes struck me as unreal, the fiery passion they embody for their cause is ethereal to my mind. I close this review with what one of my friends told me of this book “It makes you think and believe that there is much more to life than the humdrum of the daily activities”.