For all you Grisham fans. His Latest, The Broker
[Pakistani techies broker deals in Grisham's novel](http://infotech.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1015119.cms)
If you thought that Silicon Valley and Indian “cyber coolies” were the best imports that the US of A had managed in the last decade, think again. Thanks to technology and its advancements, Asian software engineers have found their way in in John Grisham’s latest offering The Broker .
Moving away from the stereotype image of software geeks living in a world comprising programming, coding and creating solutions, The Broker is an attempt to drive home the fact that technology, especially software, is a unifying force and has become a global brand.
If the world has become a global village, technology has had a sizeable contribution. And although the American novelist’s latest mélange has the usual fare of the CIA, the Oval House and a power broker getting a presidential pardon for raping a juvenile, it has also made space for Asian technology workers.
Grisham’s hero Washington power broker Joel Backman is out after serving a 6-year stint at a federal prison, thanks to a presidential pardon, even as the CIA wants to smuggle him out of the country and give him a new identity. Backman finds himself in this predicament after getting caught in a government sting, as he attempts to broker one of the biggest deals of his life.
* “The three young wizards had been educated in the United States. The leader was a former Stanford graduate assistant who’d worked briefly at Breeding Corp, a renegade U.S. defense contractor that specialised in satellite systems. Fazal Sharif had an advanced degree in computer science from Georgia Tech. “ ** (excerpts from the novel) *
Six years ago, three Pakistani software engineers Safi Mirza, Fazal Sharif and Farooq Khan accidentally discovered a fleet of spy satellites orbiting over the neighborhood. Like hackers true to their vocation, the trio seized them and uploaded their own control system.
Spurred to make a quick buck, they took their new toys to Washington DC’s most powerful lobbyist Backman, wanting to make their tech dreams come true.
As the software system created by Pakistani geeks has rendered a highly advanced satellite system useless, the CIA is out to figure out who owns the satellite web as it’s more sophisticated than anything owned by the US.
Spread over the US and Italy, Grisham’s novel tries to weave in history, culture, language and technology together.