His memory is a blank slate. If he wants to find out who he is, he has to do the impossible.
He was resurrected in the summer of 1975 off a Mediterranean islet, where a fishing boat fished him out, shot and with his memory gone. When a local bankrupt doctor puts him back together, it turns out he has a Swiss account number sewn under his skin. A visit to a Zurich bank suggests to the amnesiac hero that he probably made his living as a Bourne assassin, a Jason Bourne whose trauma even James Bond would be short on.
Why is it that he knows so many languages and faces all the pitfalls coldly, but can't remember the details of his previous life that have left him facing hordes of armed gorillas? What is Treadstone 71, how is it related to the Vietnam War or the internationally wanted terrorist Carlos? With Canadian Marie, who was first his hostage when he escaped Zurich, Jason runs for his life and unravels a devious intelligence game. I mean, if he doesn't want to keep hearing things and accusations he doesn't understand, he's got to raise even more hell...
The novel was loosely adapted into the film Agent Without a Past (2002) directed by Doug Liman and starring Matt Damon and Franka Potente. However, the film, also shot in Prague, was set in the post-Cold War era of espionage. A more faithful psychological version was offered in 1988 by Roger Young's two-part miniseries with Richard Chamberlain and Jaclyn Smith.
