Books to Read Before the Summer Blockbuster Movies Come Out

A Most Wanted Man is le Carré's riveting and revelatory take on the "War on Terror." The novel follows a harried anti-terrorism expert—Philip Seymour Hoffman in one of his last film performances—as he tries to investigate a half-Chechen, half-Russian possible Muslim immigrant who shows up mysteriously in Hamburg. There's an urgency to le Carré's novel, set over the course of a single day, that's best realized by your turning the pages as quickly as the allegiances shift—and the characters turn on each other.