She knew what she had to do. Review on Eye of the Needle - Ken Follett

They met at the most unlikely place, made eye contact, fell for each other and made passionate love to each other. He was pretending to be someone who he was not and she was pretending to be happy in a difficult marriage. She had reasons for straying from her crippled husband but when the truth was revealed, it shook her forever.

This may look like a plot for a Bollywood pot-boiler but is actually a well crafted fiction based on some true facts about the Second World War. This book turned out to be Follett’s first successful, bestselling effort as a novelist and set the stage for a series of engrossing books to come.

The beauty of the book lies in its detailed descriptions of all the characters and situations depicted in it. When you would expect a writer to devote at best two pages to describe a 10 mile long island, the author of this book took pains to describe each and every rock, ledge, beach and cottage of the island in such beautiful words that it almost felt like the island is right in front of me. It did slow down the speed of the story but the descriptions it provided made 480 pages of engrossing reading.

The story is built upon a simple fact that the British used a massive counter-intelligence operation by creating dummy armies, airfields, missiles and allowed German reconnaissance aircrafts to infiltrate into their airspace to take their pictures and made them believe that the D-Day attack was to come not at Normandy but from somewhere else. History points out that it worked. But the premise of the story is that what would have happened if it had not worked? What would have happened if a German spy found out this bluff and reported it to Hitler? How was he to be stopped from doing it?

The story then takes us to Henry Faber, a German spy who has been living in London for the past many years under different names, sending wireless messages to Hamburg on a regular basis and has become famous as the London stiletto murderer. He infiltrates the dummy airfields at East Anglia and quickly discovers the Allied deception plan. His next task is to send its proof back to Germany but he ends up at Storm Island, and meets Lucy, the woman who nearly breaks him down.

Henry Faber is ruthless in his art and a cold hearted murderer. He carries a stiletto inside the sleeve of his left hand. He is so ruthless that even Hitler swears by his word. He thinks(and knows) that there is no better spy on either side of the warring sides. And what makes him feared is that the British authorities do not have any of his photographs. He lives by deception and works to keep himself away from suspicion. David Rose lost his legs in a road accident soon after his marriage and his dream of becoming a pilot with the Royal Air Force remains shattered. He turns against his wife and makes life miserable for her even though he cares for his son.

Lucy Rose, wife of David, she tries to be strong in a difficult marriage. She thinks that she is loyal to her husband but still ends up getting attracted to Faber. She shows the emotions of a neglected wife but is strong enough to defend herself and her family against adversities. Percival Godliman and Frederick Bloggs are the MI5 agents who seek to arrest Faber before it is too late. For that they need the help of Lucy.

What is so special about this book is that Follett has been successful in trying to depict human emotions brilliantly even though the book ends up being a spy thriller. The pains that Lucy goes through in the 4 years of her marriage to David is summed up in her realization that his neglect of her while looking after the sheep is his way of getting over his pain of losing his legs. Similarly, Faber finds himself breaking down in front of the woman who he thinks is the most beautiful he has ever seen. He can look through her eyes and know that she is not happy.

Excellent characterization coupled with great description of every scene and act makes this a page turner. Adjectives like unputdownable, engrossing, great climax, excellent plot, etc are usually reserved for most bestselling authors but Follett strikes them down in just one blow with this book. His grip over the English language is worth a mention. There are not many writers who can write books in such a good way as he has done.

In the end I would add just one small thing – if you have watched the movie Fanaa, you will know that its climax is quite similar to this book. Maybe that’s why this book is a hit but the film isn’t.