The Broker
Encyclopedia
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.
that nobody knows about, and Backman ends up in jail. Six years later, the political wheels in Washington
have turned and other power-hungry men are eager for his blood. Bargains are made and an outgoing disgraced president grants him a full pardon at the behest of the CIA and he finds himself spirited out of the prison in the middle of the night, bundled onto a military plane and flown to Italy for a new life. He has a new name and mysterious new "friends" who will teach him to speak the language and to blend in with the people of the city of Bologna
.
But something isn't quite kosher in this new setup, and he is under constant surveillance. In fact, his own government is setting him up for professional assassins from Russia
, China
, Israel
, Saudi Arabia
, and other countries. The CIA intends to sit back and wait to see which one gets him first, trying to solve the biggest mystery to hit the US government in decades; seeing who built this seemingly impenetrable and most advanced satellite ever.
It turns out to be China. Despite having low satellite technology, they stole the information from the U.S.
Backman survives several assassination attempts and manages to establish communication with his son, Neal Backman. He escapes surveillance and returns to his home to contract a new deal with the US government. The CIA is told about the satellite, along with the taking of the program of the satellite itself.
, or perhaps to Bill Clinton's
infamous last-minute presidential pardons in 2001. Nevertheless, The Broker made number one on the New York Times .
Suspense
Suspense is a feeling of uncertainty and anxiety about the outcome of certain actions, most often referring to an audience's perceptions in a dramatic work. Suspense is not exclusive to fiction, though. Suspense may operate in any situation where there is a lead-up to a big event or dramatic...
novel written by American author John Grisham
John Grisham
John Ray Grisham, Jr. is an American lawyer and author, best known for his popular legal thrillers.John Grisham graduated from Mississippi State University before attending the University of Mississippi School of Law in 1981 and practiced criminal law for about a decade...
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
Satellite
In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavour. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....
surveillance system to the highest bidder.
Plot summary
Joel Backman is "the Broker"- a Washington power broker-lobbyist. But his life falls apart when a deal collapses involving a hacked spy satelliteSatellite
In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavour. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....
that nobody knows about, and Backman ends up in jail. Six years later, the political wheels in Washington
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
have turned and other power-hungry men are eager for his blood. Bargains are made and an outgoing disgraced president grants him a full pardon at the behest of the CIA and he finds himself spirited out of the prison in the middle of the night, bundled onto a military plane and flown to Italy for a new life. He has a new name and mysterious new "friends" who will teach him to speak the language and to blend in with the people of the city of Bologna
Bologna
Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...
.
But something isn't quite kosher in this new setup, and he is under constant surveillance. In fact, his own government is setting him up for professional assassins from Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
, and other countries. The CIA intends to sit back and wait to see which one gets him first, trying to solve the biggest mystery to hit the US government in decades; seeing who built this seemingly impenetrable and most advanced satellite ever.
It turns out to be China. Despite having low satellite technology, they stole the information from the U.S.
Backman survives several assassination attempts and manages to establish communication with his son, Neal Backman. He escapes surveillance and returns to his home to contract a new deal with the US government. The CIA is told about the satellite, along with the taking of the program of the satellite itself.
Literary significance and 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 BushGeorge W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
, or perhaps to Bill Clinton's
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
infamous last-minute presidential pardons in 2001. Nevertheless, The Broker made number one on the New York Times .
Characters
- Joel Backman a.k.a Marco - A rich, powerful power-lobbyist that tried to broker a deal selling a program that controls the world's most powerful satellite. The deal breaks, the buyers (countries) are angry, and he's spending time inside jail. He's released courtesy of an elaborate plan by Teddy Maynard (the head of CIA) and is removed to Italy to start a new life. However, he quickly catches on to the suspicious plan and survives several assassination attempts. He later brokers a new deal with the government to sell the program and tells the origins of the satellite. in return, he's given real protection and starts another new life starting a new firm, with his soon to be wife Francesca.
- Neal Backman - Only loyal son of Joel Backman. He helped his father in his time at Italy through financial assistance and the buying of a new communication device
- Teddy Maynard - Aging and endurable head of CIA. He survived several unsuccessful firings and he's brilliant. Finally fired by the new president.
- Luigi - A shadowy "friend" of Backman who helped him in his new life while putting up surveillance on Backman.
- Sammy Tin - One of the best assassins in the world. Child of two Red Chinese diplomats. Assigned to kill Joel Backman, but fails.
- Ermanno - A young language tutor, supposedly taking classes in the local college.
- Francesca - A language tutor and tour guide of Italy. Is assigned to be a new language guide to Backman. Now learned Backman's true identity and has a romantic relationship with Backman.
Other languages
- GermanGerman languageGerman is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
- Die Begnadigung (The Pardon) - ItalianItalian languageItalian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
- Il Broker - DutchDutch languageDutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
- De Deal - NorwegianNorwegian languageNorwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is the official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants .These Scandinavian languages together with the Faroese language...
- Megleren - SpanishSpanish languageSpanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
- El Intermediario - PolishPolish languagePolish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...
- Wielki gracz (Grand player) - HebrewHebrew languageHebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
- הברוקר - LithuanianLithuanian languageLithuanian is the official state language of Lithuania and is recognized as one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 2.96 million native Lithuanian speakers in Lithuania and about 170,000 abroad. Lithuanian is a Baltic language, closely related to Latvian, although they...
- Brokeris - DanishDanish languageDanish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where it holds the status of minority language...
- Mægleren - SwedishSwedish languageSwedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...
- Agenten - PortuguesePortuguese languagePortuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
- O Corretor - FinnishFinnish languageFinnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...
- Armahdus - RomanianRomanian languageRomanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...
- Mediatorul (The Mediator) - EstonianEstonian languageEstonian is the official language of Estonia, spoken by about 1.1 million people in Estonia and tens of thousands in various émigré communities...
- Amnestia (Amnesty) - Chinese-破處
- CzechCzech languageCzech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...
- Lobbista - FrenchFrench languageFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
- Le Clandestin - BulgarianBulgarian languageBulgarian is an Indo-European language, a member of the Slavic linguistic group.Bulgarian, along with the closely related Macedonian language, demonstrates several linguistic characteristics that set it apart from all other Slavic languages such as the elimination of case declension, the...
- Брокерът - SlovakSlovak languageSlovak , is an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Slavic languages .Slovak is the official language of Slovakia, where it is spoken by 5 million people...
- Maklér - HungarianHungarian languageHungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
- A manipulátor
Publishing notes
- The blurred man on the back is really John Grisham.
- '"Kwytemail", the secure e-mailE-mailElectronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...
system by which the Backmans communicate, is modeled after services such as HushmailHushmailHushmail is a web-based email service offering PGP-encrypted e-mail, file storage, vanity domain service, and instant messaging . Hushmail uses OpenPGP standards and the source is available for download. Additional security features include hidden IP addresses in e-mail headers...
.