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    The Broker
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    The Broker
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    The Broker
    Audiobook (abridged)5 hours

    The Broker

    Written by John Grisham

    Narrated by Dennis Boutsikaris

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    In his final hours in the Oval Office, the outgoing President grants a controversial last-minute pardon to Joel Backman, a notorious Washington power broker who has spent the last six years hidden away in a federal prison. What no one knows is that the President issues the pardon only after receiving enormous pressure from the CIA. It seems Backman, in his power broker heyday, may have obtained secrets that compromise the world's most sophisticated satellite surveillance system.

    Backman is quietly smuggled out of the country in a military cargo plane, given a new name, a new identity, and a new home in Italy. Eventually, after he has settled into his new life, the CIA will leak his whereabouts to the Israelis, the Russians, the Chinese, and the Saudis. Then the CIA will do what it does best: sit back and watch. The question is not whether Backman will survive-there is no chance of that. The question the CIA needs answered is, who will kill him?


    From the Hardcover edition.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJan 11, 2005
    ISBN9780739316450
    Unavailable
    The Broker

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    Reviews for The Broker

    3.5/5

    1,453 ratings62 reviews

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      Despite being a criminal I found Joel Backman to be a very likable character and I wanted him to survive. Although it was rather slow in places I still liked this book and I enjoyed how it was set in Italy. There were lots of detailed descriptions about various aspects of the towns and surrounds, with a large number of Italian phrases thrown in for good measure. My only real criticism of this book would be the end; it was uninspiring. I was surprised that I reached the end because I expected more. It was left to the reader's imagination to determine Joel's fate.
    • 3/5
      I think maybe John Grisham bought some Rosetta Stone software to try to learn Italian, got frustrated with it, and then spent the rest of the day imagining a situation in which someone would actually be motivated to learn Italian quickly. Presto: you have The Broker, in which a felon is pardoned and whisked off to Italy in a sortof ersatz witness-protection operation, where his life depends on passing for a native Italian. There are pages and pages and pages of description of his Italian lessons and his motivation to learn (he keeps making the tutor start lessons earlier and earlier), and we're inside his head as he recites the Italian word for everything in his apartment.

      Now, I like languages and occasionally mumbled some of the words out loud to myself while reading just to test my Italian accent, so I enjoyed the weird preoccupation with learning Italian. However, you have to admit it's a bizarrely academic preoccupation for a run-for-your-life thriller--especially when, in the context of the story, it's wholly unnecessary to the point of being unbelievable. Surely if the point is for this American guy to blend in while in hiding, you'd stash him in... Canada, Australia, England? You know, where the language skills he already has will be useful? And since it turns out that the US government us just waiting to see whether it's the Russians, the Chinese, or the Israelis who will find and kill our fugitive first, I don't understand why they'd bother paying a tutor a full-time salary to teach the guy flawless Italian. So I'm back to where I started: all I can figure is that Grisham really wanted to write a story about learning to speak Italian.
    • 3/5
      I liked this book, but I kept expecting more to happen--like Backman teaming up with some superagent who helps him escape. It was nice to see him do it on his own, though I did wonder how he learned spylike techniques given his history. I haven't checked, but the ending makes me wonder if there are other books with this character that show how things turned out with Francesca and whether he remains part of his son's family.
    • 3/5
      Too much description. Almost 75% of the book is talking about getting coffee in Italy. But there's some excitement in there as well, just enough to save it.
    • 5/5
      Might be my favorite Grisham novel. A pardoned broker is set free, but as a target. He gets to know his small Italian town, the people, and the food. Very nice setting.
    • 3/5
      The book vividly descirbe the life of italy, its people living in small & big cities.The thrill is not that much but I learnt lot of things from this book about Italy
    • 3/5
      I didn't particularly like this book. Rather pedestrian for Grisham I thought. I didn't really buy the whole reason for sending Joel to Bologna because it seemed to me all they would have had to do was offer him a parole in exchange for him providing them the information.
    • 4/5
      I finally found a Grisham novel that I don't remember reading before!

      The Broker, Joel Backman is in prison serving twenty years for a crime that he may or may not have committed. With fourteen still to go he is unexpectedly pardoned by the outgoing President and smuggled to a secret location in Europe. Then, the authorities of various countries sit back and monitor him as they wait to see who will get to him first.....

      This was a great read and kept me hooked until the end. The danger the main character was in felt real and exposed the potential power plays going on at the highest levels of American government and within the intelligence systems.

      I wasn't as interested in the well researched history of Italy and the various Italian words and phrases that are included in the narrative but this might be a bonus for some people.

      As with most of Grisham's books, there are a few swear words, some violence and some sexual innuendo. There is nothing grossly offensive or especially graphic.

      An entertaining read. Recommended.
    • 5/5
      Washington power broker, Joel Backman had served 6 of the 25 years he was sentenced. The guy who wanted him dead paid $1million for his pardon and transporation to a foreign country where the plan was to alert one of the many people in other countries who wanted him dead and had the means to make it happen. Backman only knew he was sprung and whisked away and he needed to escape from his keepers. Grisham may not be a great author but he still tells a great story in my book.
    • 4/5
      Too much irrelevant detail
    • 4/5
      The story is fictional, but is about the corruption behind the U.S. political scene as an outgoing president makes a shady deal, but the story draws you into the life of the broker, who is also a criminal and is desperate to conceal his identity. By the end of the book you end up rooting for the broker instead. It is not about morals.
    • 3/5
      "The Broker," more than anything, was a way for Grisham to expense his trip to Bologna, Italy. Out of 400 pages, there was maybe 100 of story. The rest was a tour of primarily Bologna, and endless translations of dialogue, histories of various cathedrals, and lots of food ordering.Having said that, the story itself was pretty good.Spoilers ahead.The story is that of Joel Backman, a major power broker in DC, who gets pardoned by an outgoing president six years into a 14-year sentence for crimes against the state—he was trying to sell technology that could control satellites. But it was the CIA who pressured and orchestrated the pardon because they wanted to see who would come after Backman once he was freed; the Israelis, the Chinese, or the Saudis. The CIA gets him to Italy where he's to learn the language (and get lots of history lessons!) before they begin leaking where he is. After tiring of this, Backman escapes and makes his way back to the states so he can turn over the software that landed him in prison to begin with.
    • 3/5
      It was just so Unbelievable. I finished it but just couldn't accept that everything worked the
      way it was in the book
    • 2/5
      Though slow in its build up, it does reach the point of engaging and interesting, though I never did like the main character and I rooted against him the whole way. I really enjoyed all the Italian and I'd love to travel to Bologna some day! Lots of pieces in place, lots of characters building up to a nice crescendo! And then? Poop. A horrible ending. Just abrupt and lame. I mean, what happened to Sammy Tin? (just for starters!) Because of that, I'd be hard pressed to recommend this.
    • 3/5
      Not seriously credible but makes for exciting, fun read.
    • 2/5
      One of the better Grisham novels that I've read. It didn't follow his typical plot and use the familiar devices. However, at this point I was in a mental health facility and severely limited as to my reading options so you may want to take what I say here with a grain of salt.
    • 4/5
      I usually like Grisham, and this was a good one. A former DC power broker is pardoned and released from prison into a kind of witness protection program in Italy so the CIA can leak info and see who kills him. Or something like that. The hiding and cat-and-mouse game kept the pages turning.
    • 5/5
      I was pretty much captivated from the get-go with this novel. The story whilst a little far-fetched both in technology and initial events is actually excellent. The building tension as you know something is about to happen but not sure when it's going to or where it's coming from. Then suddenly there's a diversion which changes where you thought things were going.... the lead up to the end is probably one of the better hastily travel dialogues of read.There's also some great information about the scenery of Bolonga, in northern Italy there too which as a good little side bonus.My only compliant is there's not a part 2, although I can certainly see the value in ending the plot where it finishes with an air of limitless possibility.I'll definitely be reading some more Grisham in the near future.
    • 4/5
      Although different from alot of Grisham's books, I enjoyed it still. A new twist.
    • 5/5
      One of the best thrillers I have read so far. The book has suspense, twists and a good narrative style.
    • 3/5
      The last time I read a book by John Grisham was in high school after The Rainmaker with Matt Damon came out and I was on a Grisham kick for a while. I remember liking the pacing of his novels, the characters doing what is right despite the odds being stacked against them, and Grisham's easy writing style that provided enough detail to sympathize with the underdogs but never crossed into too much familiarity. So when I came across the paperback of The Broker memories did their thing and the book came home with me. It sat on the shelf through my well-intentioned "reading schedule" phase, got passed over a couple of times after that until finally I was in the mood for it. Almost immediately I saw that either my memories were flawed or The Broker didn't fit in with the Grisham novels I read. In the beginning there was a lot of backstory setting the scene for Joel Backman's release from prison. It painted him as a ruthless, greedy man unfamiliar with the very concept of morality, and even as freedom was offered to him after years in solitary confinement in conditions that were clearly meant to break him he accepted it as if it was his due. And then Joel was moved to Italy and with the new clothes and a pair of Armani glasses he seemed to take on a new identity in more than just name - still demanding and knowing exactly what he wanted, he at the same time has acquired an appreciation for the simpler things in life, and seemed to have re-evaluated his past and was determined to live differently. Unfortunately this transformation got almost no page time, it was more or less just there, leaving the reader to arrive at their own conclusions as to how Joel got from point A to point B. Pacing left much to be desired as well. Events rolled along leisurely for about three quarters of the book with Joel endlessly going from Italian lessons to meals and back, and things started to feel a bit like Groundhog Day, until in a blink of an eye our protagonist transformed from a frustrated tourist into a man of action masterminding his true freedom and once again manipulating some of the highest powers in Washington into doing his bidding. This transition, though not unexpected, was so sudden and swift that it almost gave me whiplash and once again left me with a sense of dissatisfaction.My favorite scenes in the book were where Joel was shown adjusting to life in Italy. His first attempts to order food in a foreign language, his growing familiarity with Bologna, even his overwhelming drive to learn Italian made him into a sympathetic character despite his thoroughly unsympathetic past. I really could do with more of that because I think it would develop the characters and the book wouldn't feel so much like a chronology of events past and present.All in all it was a decent read and I was glad for the way things turned out. I just wish it was more fleshed out in every aspect.
    • 2/5
      boring spy thriller. The victim is run around Italy for 250 or so pages learning Italian and visiting restaurants, which is not used in any way to further the plot later in the novel.
    • 4/5
      Good, clean espionage fun, as usual for John Grisham. The old Soviet spy thriller is now replaced by...everyone! The Chinese, the Israelis, the Saudis, the Russians, and of course the good old US of A. At the end, the one thread dangling loose is the issue of the passport. I don't see how he can get away with that, but oh well, that's fiction for you.
    • 3/5
      This was a good airplane read. Fast. A bit formulaic.I really liked the descriptions of Italy, some of character descriptions were very good and some felt rushed, unfinished.The ending felt like it was slapped together at the last minute before going to print - lacking in character and place descriptions, some connections.There were just too many unfinished threads left dangling...Not a re-read by any means, but I would recommend this book to Grisham fans or someone looking for a quick mystery/espionage read.
    • 5/5
      Enjoyed it a lot. Grisham at his best.
    • 3/5
      As always, Grisham is intensely readable. He really is a superb narrative writer. But in this variation on a theme, he gets away from his usual legal focus and wonders into espionage. And because you feel he is dabbling, this is not one of his better efforts. Which is not to say a reader will not be rewarded--especially by his loving and detailed description of learning life in a different culture. It's just that many of the characters are two-dimensional, existing purely to push the story along, and the total is less than the sum of the parts.
    • 4/5
      An entertaining story with a fast moving plot. I had an urge last week to read a story by John Grisham and The Broker was my selection. Before that I had read "The Summons"(It was a fair read). I don't read his novels in sequences which fortunately for someone like me there is no need, because each of Mr. Grisham's books will stand on their own. I thought The Broker was an easy read that was very entertaining. There was a lot of intrigue woven into a fast moving plot. I thought the class room instructions on the topography of Italy and the language was a bit too much. Actually, this part of the book got really boring. The main character, Joel Backman gave me fits. I never was really sure if he was decent sort of a fellow or just a down right crook. I could never get the feeling that I should root for him or just hope for his quick exit from the story. In summary, there were parts of the story that I didn't care for, but overall I thought it was real decent book that I wouldn't hesitate to recommend to all my friends.
    • 4/5
      This book is easy to read. Yet I found it a little lengthy in the way it describes Bologna and Italy as well the experience of the main character in learning the Italian language. However I enjoyed learning some Italian vocab and since I like traveling describing Italy too much is not a big deal. The Story becomes more interesting and fast toward the end of the book. I guess the author compensates by a fast moving and thrill ride action toward the end of the book.
    • 4/5
      This is the first John Grisham novel I have read.and an intriguing mixture it is. After the first three chapters that zip through the plot machinations the book changes pace .We are in an Italian town where our American hero who seems to be on some sort of elaborate witness protection scheme is trying to learn Italian and adapt to an Italian way of life. Grisham captures very well the feel of an Italian town and issues facing a non european suddenly parachuted into it. You can almost smell the coffee. The mystery element is still very much present, however the writers main concern seems to be to make the reader enjoy the experience of Italy and this he does superbely well. About three quarters of the way through the book the plot starts moving again at a fairly quick pace and while this is full of suspense the book somehow loses something as it moves away from the Italian scene so lovingly described. The story line has no real climax but everything is wrapped up in an efficient manner, but this last part of the novel feels like it belongs just to those first three chapters and fails to connect with the excellence of what has gone on after them. I enjoyed this (well three quarters of it ) very much. Essential reading for anyone planning to visit Italy for the first time.
    • 5/5
      All time favorite John Grisham book..suspenseful,thrilling..could not put this down!