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    A Small Town in Germany
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    A Small Town in Germany
    Unavailable
    A Small Town in Germany
    Audiobook13 hours

    A Small Town in Germany

    Written by John le Carre

    Narrated by Michael Jayston

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    "Haven't you realized that only appearances matter?"

    The British Embassy in Bonn is up in arms. Her Majesty's financially troubled government is seeking admission to Europe's Common Market just as anti-British factions are rising to power in Germany. Rioters are demanding reunification, and the last thing the Crown can afford is a scandal. Then Leo Harting-an embassy nobody-goes missing with a case full of confidential files. London sends Alan Turner to control the damage, but he soon realizes that neither side really wants Leo found-alive.

    Set against the threat of a German-Soviet alliance, John le Carré's A Small Town in Germany is a superb chronicle of Cold War paranoia and political compromise.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateMar 5, 2013
    ISBN9781101575734
    Unavailable
    A Small Town in Germany
    Author

    John le Carre

    John le Carré was born in 1931. His third novel, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, secured him a worldwide reputation, which was consolidated by the acclaim for his trilogy: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; The Honorable Schoolboy; and Smiley’s People. His novels include The Constant Gardner, The Little Drummer Girl, A Perfect Spy, The Russia House, Our Game, The Tailor of Panama, and Single & Single. He lives in Cornwall, United Kingdom.

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    Reviews for A Small Town in Germany

    3.5/5

    317 ratings15 reviews

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    • 2/5
      Disappointing.
    • 3/5
      This was okay. Quite a lot of characters to keep track of, and think it might benefit from a second reading.
    • 4/5
      Early Le Carre is still great Le Carre. As with most of his work, if you can make it through the long set-up and make sense of the British-ism embedded in the writing, you'll be rewarded with a fine novel. The 'small town' referenced in the title is Bonn, (West) Germany in the late 60's during the Cold War. It was a different world then, but maybe not so different since protests against an economic summit, issues related to NATO, and Russian spying are all in the story line. The plot is solid: a German national who's a long-time 'temporary' employee of the British embassy disappears with some important files (paper, of course). An investigator is sent in to determine if the man defected to the East. We're then treated to the characteristic Le Carre style..... lots of dialogue, many characters, interrogations. Not a lot of action per se, but enough to keep the story interesting and readers engaged. The writing is superb, the plot is solid, and when the investigator finally reaches a conclusion, it's likely not what you expected. I read a lot in this genre, and one thing I was struck by while making my way through this book was how different the reaction would be in today's world. There wouldn't be one investigator sent, more likely a team with a bunch of computer and forensics experts. The disappeared person would have been tracked via cell phone, credit card use, surveillance cameras, etc. I'm not sure all the interviews of his bosses and co-workers would have taken place, and any that did probably wouldn't have been as genteelly done. Would've been a different book, but if Le Carre wrote it I'd still read it!
    • 4/5
      Many, many Lecarre novels are a bit of a slog for me at the start, but if I persist, inevitably, it seems, I am rewarded. Here's another. He's better at genre writing than pretty much anyone.
    • 3/5
      Well, I'm a big le Carre' fan, but this was a little much for me. Well written of course, but it was the never ending Q and A. I'm exhausted now, and I wasn't the one being interrogated.
    • 3/5
      Substance: Suspense in post-WW2 Bonn, digging up old secrets, artful misdirection. Anything more would spoil things for the next reader.Style: A bit terse for my taste.
    • 3/5
      An odd spy tale in Bonn, Germany, that revolves around a character who is spoken of but never revealed. Most of the action takes place in the British embassy in Bonn.
    • 4/5
      Tyskland, Vesttyskland, Bonn, slutningen af 1960'erne (i den nære fremtid i forhold til publiceringstidspunktet)Den "lille" by i Tyskland er Bonn, der var midlertidig hovedstad i Vesttyskland efter anden verdenskrig. Vi følger den engelske ambassade, ledet af ambassadøren- og Peter de Lisle. Leo Harting, der har været "midlertidigt" ansat i 20 år, er pludseligt sunket i jorden og ambassaden mangler også nogle vigtige papirer. Det er tiden hvor Fællesmarkedet (EEU) er under etablering og det vil være katastrofalt hvis englændernes forhandlingsstrategi bliver kendt for andre. En af sikkerhedstjenestens folk Alan Turner - som er gift, men konen er stukket af med en anden - bliver sendt til Bonn og begynder at trævle tingene op. Ambassadens personale er ikke ret kvikke og Turner er ikke ret sympatisk, så det er svært at finde nogen at holde af i denne bog. Der er ungdoms- og studenteroprør og en populistisk og meget antibritisk bevægelse under ledelse af en mand ved navn Karfeld har pludseligt farligt mange tilhængere og ser ud til stadigt at vokse. Ved en aktion mod et britisk oprettet bibliotek lider en bibliotekar martyrdøden.Rawley Bradfield er den første, Turner tager fat i. Ambassadens arkivar er den næste. Han hedder Arthur Meadowes, hans datter hedder Myra og der er antydninger af en affære i Warszawa hvor Myra blev udnyttet af en polsk elsker og hvor Turner pressede hende så hårdt under forhørene at hun forsøgte selvmord. En efter en tager Turner fat i folk og der tegner sig hurtigt et billede af at Harting har indyndet sig de rigtige steder, så han har fået nøgler til alting og kan komme og gå uden at blive skrevet i protokollen og han kan tage dokumenter med omkring til sit kontor (og selvfølgelig kopiere dem) og det er også ham, der henter al posten og igen kan han gå omkring sit kontor og lave sig en kop te på vejen (og selvfølgelig dampe de interessante breve op og kopiere indholdet). Til sidst er han så forsvundet med en masse dokumenter og specielt en grøn mappe.Men netop det får Turner til at spekulere, for en spion er dum, hvis han stjæler i stedet for bare at kopiere uden spor, så hvorfor? Turner kigger på Hartings hus og kan se at han har lavet mad klar dagen før han hoppede af, så det var åbenbart en meget pludselig beslutning. Turner finder ud af mere og mere. Leo er ikke spion for russerne, men for sig selv. Han forsøger at stikke en kæp i hjulet for Karfeld, for han ved at Karfeld er en svindler og en morder, der eksperimenterede med giftgas for nazisterne under krigen. Leo er så indigneret og politisk naiv at han bliver meget chokeret da det går op for ham at englænderne spiller på begge heste ved både at forsøge at komme med i fællesmarkedet og ved samtidig at holde sig gode venner med Karfeld hvis han nu skulle få magten.Leo forsøger at skyde Karfeld (som han sikkert ser som en potentiel ny Hitler), men ender selv med at blive dræbt. Faktisk når han to forsøg, for første forsøg var det, der fik angrebet på biblioteket til at gå igang. Så er Leo moralsk ansvarlig for bibliotekarens død og hvis ja, er det så ligemeget, for det var i et højere formåls tjeneste?Udmærket roman hvor spionverdenen og diplomatiets drømmefabrik spejler sig i hinanden. Og den første roman, jeg har læst, hvor tørrehjelme spiller en rolle.Slutningen bringer mindelser om Stephen Kings Den døde Zone. Hvad skal man gøre, hvis man bestemt mener at Antikrist er ved at komme til magten? Og har man faktisk en chance?
    • 3/5
      Great writing. Okay plot. Wonderful ending. Not what one would expect. This is a good book and a fun read if you like le Carré.
    • 4/5
      A low-level German-born staffer in the British embassy in 1960s Bonn disappears along with several dozen files which may prove crucial to the UK's gaining admittance to the European Common Market. Set during the student riots in West Germany, when politicians flirted with both East and West, there are elements in this novel which still ring true today. Inept diplomats and their even more stultifying staff each scramble to protect their own turf, damn the consequences for the country they are supposed to be serving, even including illicit affairs. The world weary players trudge through their monotonous lives with the sole hope of retiring comfortably on a government pension. Meanwhile, revolution is in the air, stirred up by a larger than life German who may not be all he seems. Did the staffer defect to Russia or East Germany? Did he take the files with him? What was in the files? Does it all matter or can it be swept under the rug? And, the issue most concerning the embassy, can we keep the Germans from finding out about the disappearance so they don't realize just how blazingly incompetent we are? Le Carre's unromantic cycnicsm, developed in his previous novels, is on full display here.
    • 3/5
      A supposed "classic" written in '70, pre Tinker Tailor. Same old LeCarre bs: US is a Goliath, evil, stupid but massive. Brit embassy in capital city Bonn. Low level embassy guy disappears. Alan Turner comes from London to investigate. Interview, interview, interview.Intigue, duplicity, convoluted plots. Good thing I didn't read this before TTSS.
    • 4/5
      Not one of le Carre's classics, really, but still fantastic. A Cold War ghost story, in a way, follows an incredibly unlikable protagonist as he searches for a diplomat who may have turned traitor. le Carre is, as always, a master when it comes to dialogue
    • 2/5
      The writing was too dense and abstract to my tastes. Maybe his writing style will take some time to get used to, since this is my first book by John Le Carre. I am used to the more to-the-point and very technical writing style of Fredrick Forsyth when it comes to political thrillers. This one has most of the characters speaking in lot of philosophy, which proved very distracting for me. That said, the plot although not very elaborate is an interesting one and gives some interesting insight into post-WW2 Germany.
    • 4/5
      Slow. Even by Le Carre's standards. It's a standalone thriller disconnected from his Smiley series, revolving around the UK diplomatic community in Bonn at the time of the Brussels treaty and the foundation of the Common Market. Leo Hartfield has gone missing from the Embassy in Bonn a 'temporary' he had been there 20 years and appears to have had access to a lot of files in that time. The rough mannered yorkshireman John Turner is brought in from Intelligence to find out how, why, when and whether the Russians were involved. Oh and if he could recover a certain Green File without reading the contents - with or without Leo.Very very slow dialog drivin plotting describes Turner's various meetings with the key characters in the embassy - all of whom dislike him on sight and are reluctant to share any infromation with him. In addition There is a political crisis going on as Germany may be pulling out of the Common Market and establishing a trade Axis with Russia instead. The ending is extremely sudden. An average exploration of the political scene in 60s germany, it is not one of Le Carre's best works, though it all comes together quite nicely in the end.
    • 4/5
      Interesting look inside the British diplomatic community in Germany in the post-British-Empire world. It's clear that le Carre really really hated it!