- The Constant Gardener
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This article is about the novel. For the film, see The Constant Gardener (film). For the trust, see Constant Gardener Trust.
The Constant Gardener 
First UK edition coverAuthor(s) John le Carré Country United Kingdom Language English, German, Swahili Publisher Hodder & Stoughton Publication date January 4, 2001 Media type Print (Hardcover and Paperback) Pages 557pp ISBN 0340733373 OCLC Number 59510670 The Constant Gardener is a 2001 novel by John le Carré. It tells the story of Justin Quayle, a British diplomat whose activist wife is murdered. Believing there is something behind the murder, he seeks to uncover the truth and finds an international conspiracy of corrupt bureaucracy and pharmaceutical money.
The plot was based on a real-life case in Kano, Nigeria.
Plot summary
Justin Quayle, a British diplomat in Nairobi, is told that his activist wife, Tessa, was killed while traveling with a doctor friend in a desolate region of Africa. Investigating on his own, Quayle discovers that her murder, reportedly done by her friend, may have had more sinister roots.
Justin learns that Tessa uncovered a corporate scandal involving Medical Experimentation in Africa. KVH (Karel Vita Hudson), a large pharmaceutical company working under the cover of AIDS tests and treatments, is testing a tuberculosis drug that has severe side effects. Rather than help the test trial subjects and begin again with new medicine, KVH covered up the side effects reported in the tests, and only improved the drug in anticipation of a massive, multi-resistant tuberculosis outbreak.
Justin travels the world, often under assumed identities, in order to reconstruct the circumstances leading to Tessa's murder. As he begins to piece together Tessa's final report on the fraudulent drug tests, he learns that the roots of the conspiracy stretch further than he could have imagined; to a German pharmawatch NGO, an African aid station, and most disturbingly to him, corrupt politicians in the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
John le Carré writes in the book's afterword: 'by comparison with the reality, my story [is] as tame as a holiday postcard'.[1] The book is dedicated to Yvette Pierpaoli, a French activist who died during the course of her aid work[2].
Film adaptation
The Constant Gardener was made into a major motion picture directed by Fernando Meirelles, starring Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz in August of 2005 by Focus Features. The film grossed $33,565,375 in the US box office ($82,466,670 worldwide).
Footnotes
- ^ le Carré, John (2005). The Constant Gardener. Pocket Star. Afterword. ISBN 1-4165-0390-0.
- ^ Honan, William H. (April 20, 1999). "Yvette Pierpaoli, 60, Aid Worker Who Devoted Life to Refugees". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1999/04/20/world/yvette-pierpaoli-60-aid-worker-who-devoted-life-to-refugees.html.
Novels by John le Carré Call for the Dead (1961) • A Murder of Quality (1962) • The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1963) • The Looking Glass War (1965) • A Small Town in Germany (1968) • The Naïve and Sentimental Lover (1971) • Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1974) • The Honourable Schoolboy (1977) • Smiley's People (1979) • The Little Drummer Girl (1983) • A Perfect Spy (1986) • The Russia House (1989) • The Secret Pilgrim (1990) • The Night Manager (1993) • Our Game (1995) • The Tailor of Panama (1996) • Single & Single (1999) • The Constant Gardener (2001) • Absolute Friends (2003) • The Mission Song (2006) • A Most Wanted Man (2008) • Our Kind of Traitor (2010)
Categories:- 2001 novels
- Novels by John le Carré
- Thriller novels
- British Book Award winning works
- Pharmaceuticals policy
- Medical novels
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