He was found in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, his body riddled with bullets. His head was split open, his memory was gone.

He was found by the crew of a fishing boat and taken to an exiled doctor in a small port city. His body was preserved by the salty sea.

For six months the doctor worked with the man, the man who had no memory. He was called a chameleon; his face was altered by plastic surgery, making him easily forgotten. His eyes had no distinct color. He could blend in anywhere, change appearance at will.

He entered France from the sea, swimming up to a secluded beach. He had less than 2,000 francs, a passport that wasn’t his and the crusty old clothes on his back. By nightfall, he had purchased new clothes, a new watch, obtained 20,000 francs and had his passport altered.

He kidnapped a female accountant from a conference in a Zurich hotel, being hunted by the most elusive terrorist in the world, and he has a Swiss bank account with $5 million in it. People know him and are afraid of him.

He is on a massive hunt for his identity. He has skills he can’t explain. He thinks and does things without knowing why. And, for some reason, people want him dead. His name? Jason Bourne.

Jason Bourne is actually a renegade soldier named David Webb, who assumed the role of Bourne to capture the world’s most dangerous assassin, Carlos the Jackal.

This story is hardly the one told in the film. Written by Robert Ludlum back in the early ’80s, The Bourne Identity tells a different story. Although both begin in the same fashion, the film ventures far from the novel. The novel goes in depth on a great matter of subjects and introduces a number of integral characters not even mentioned in the film. To list the differences would be massive.

It goes without saying that “the book is better than the movie.” That is most certainly the case with this book.

Aside from the twists and turns, Ludlum’s book is 530 pages of pure suspense. Time has not aged the story one bit.

Ludlum follows the novel with two sequels, The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum.

As the pages turn, the plot thickens. More and more skills are revealed. More names come to mind. More people are in danger. More questions must be answered.

Why are there assassins after him? Why does he have millions in his bank account? How did he end up in the sea? And most importantly, who is Jason Bourne?