The Eye of the Needle

"Eye of the Needle" is a spy thriller novel written by British author Ken Follett. It was originally published in 1978 by the Penguin Group titled Storm Island. This novel was Follett's first successful, bestselling effort as a novelist, and it earned him the 1979 Edgar Award for Best Novel from the Mystery Writers of America.

The book was made into a motion picture in 1981 with a screenplay adapted by Stanley Mann and directed by Richard Marquand. It was remade in Bollywood as Fanaa(2006) starring Aamir Khan and Kajol.

Plot introduction

Operation Fortitude was the massive counter-intelligence operation undertaken by the Allies during World War II. The goal of the operation was to divert German military troops from Normandy, the site of Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of France. If the German OKW (High Command, "Oberkommando der Wehrmacht") were convinced that the invasion was to come at Calais, those resources would not be able to reach the battlefield, blocked by the Seine river.

To that end, the Allies created the fictitious First United States Army Group (FUSAG), positioned in southern England, near the Pas de Calais. FUSAG looked like a massive concentration of troops -- at least, from an aerial photograph. At ground level, FUSAG could be made for what it really was: a charade.The allies in this way wanted to move the German attention towards the fictitious battleground rather than on their actual millitary base.

The story begins with Henry Faber killing his landlady (where he stays under disguised identity) with a stilletto (hence nemed 'Die Nadel' or 'The needle' among German Spies)while she manages to get into his room getting a bit lusty.

On the other hand, the allies discover that there is a German spy for sure whose identity is yet unrevealed and who is still at large. They employ Prof. Percival Godliman to trace the spy, who after analysing a number of complicated events and their consequences, seems to arrive at Henry Faber, whose photograph he traces out of an old high school album .

Faber manages to click pictures of the faux buildup after killing a number of people including some home guards, and undertakes his journey to get those pictures in the hands of Hitler.

He sets out on a small trawler but it breaks down in a sea strorm whence he arrives at Strorm island near Aberdeen. He arrives at Lucy's house, where she lives with her crippled husband who has lost both his legs during their first ride after their wedding and hence, embittered has never touched his wife after marriage,although Lucy conceives out of their sex before marriage and has a son aged nearly three when Faber arrives.

The Eye of the Needle stresses on the various relationships and explores the unknown terrain of relationship between a lonely lady whose crippled husband is uninterested in her, her son, family and in life at all and a German Spy who lands up being a member of their household after the boat wreck near their home. Lucy becomes physically engaged with Faber though he seems to really love her, for the very first time in his life he has loved someone. He kills Lucy's husband in his endeavour to save the secret of his identity when he reveals that he has seen the photographs that he had clicked of the false battleground, though he doesn't tell Lucy about it.

He also kills Tom who is the only lone person except Lucy's family on the island. Finally after a very high nerved set of events, Faber gets his message across to the Fuerher that he has a tremendously important secret. Finally on the verge of his escape to Germany in a U- Boat, Lucy kills the only person ho has given her pleasure in so many years out of a sense of duty by rolling down stones on him while he tries to escape.

List of characters

* Henry Faber - "Die Nadel", German spy
* David Rose - young R.A.F. fighter pilot
* Lucy Rose - David Rose's wife
* Billy Parkin - young Army soldier who knows what Faber looks like
* Percival Godliman - MI5 agent
* Frederick Bloggs - MI5 agent

ee also

* Operation Fortitude
* First United States Army Group (fictional)

External links

* [http://www.ken-follett.com/bibliography/eye.html Ken Follett's Eye of the Needle - official site]