“The Bourne Identity” takes a simple, strong idea, a spy who has forgotten who he is, and carries it out with detail and steady suspense. The 1980 novel is denser and more intricate than readers who know the film may expect, and its period setting is part of the flavour. Some readers who already know the truth about Bourne find that the long investigation of the first half loses some of its pull.

The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.

About the book

The Bourne Identity is a 1980 spy fiction thriller novel by Robert Ludlum that tells the story of Jason Bourne, a man with remarkable survival abilities who has retrograde amnesia, and must seek to discover his true identity. In the process, he must also determine why several shadowy groups, a professional assassin, and the CIA want him dead. It is the first novel of the original Bourne Trilogy, which also includes The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum.

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Reading order · Bourne

Full order & progress →

7.58.08.5

7.7

7.5

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19801986199020042007200820092010201120122013201420162017

7.58.08.5

19801986199020042007200820092010201120122013201420162017

7.7

7.5

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Score per volume14 volumes on a timeline, 1980 to 2017 · Best-rated volume: The Bourne Identity

Where the score comes from

The sources average 7.7 across 555 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 79% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Spy & espionage average of 7.6. That is how 7.7 comes out.