Which war's humanitarian crisis does the novel calls attention to where the novel is set against the backdrop of chaotic East Congo and the author has worked for both the Security Service and the Secret Intelligent Service?
The Mission Song The Mission Song is a thriller/espionage novel by John le Carré, published in October 2006. Set against the background of the chaotic East Congo, the story involves the planning of a Western-backed coup in the province of Kivu, told from the worm's-eye view of the hapless interpreter. Although the events are fictional, the book evokes a rich and detailed picture of the political and racial tensions of the region, highlighting the greed and amorality of local bureaucrats and Western interests, and calling attention to the apathy of the British press about the continuing humanitarian crisis of the Congo War.
Hilary La Fontaine Hilary Dawn La Fontaine (19 October 1937 – 24 September 2012) was a Kenyan-born British intelligence officer and secretary for the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS). The daughter of a army officer and colonial civil servant, she was educated in Kenya before moving to England to train a secretary. La Fontaine joined the SIS in 1967 and undertook her first missions in Africa. She became the personal assistant to the chief of the service in 1974 and later transferred to the SIS's department at the centre of the Cold War to support its operations behind the Iron Curtain. La Fontaine accepted a posting at the British Embassy in Hanoi six years later, becoming the sole regular Western source in Communist Vietnam. She returned to London in 1982 to the posting of the SIS's secretarial branch and retired twelve years later to take up her hobbies and two academical posts.