A Small Town in Germany

By: John le Carré

Narrated by: Michael Jayston

Length: 13 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's summary

From the New York Times best-selling author of A Legacy of Spies.

"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. With an introduction by the author.

©2013 John le Carré (P)2013 Penguin Audio

Apotheosis of cynicism

A Small Town In Germany (early Cold War Bonn) brushes up against perfection. The narration is impeccable. It is a post-graduate course in cynicism. I am glad I read it in these fractious times. Please don't dismiss it as an early, pre-Smiley work. It is as good as any.

Brilliant book brilliantly read

This might be the most poetic and most atmospheric of LeCarre's books. And perhaps the most philosophical. I read it years ago but the reading still astounded and surprised me all these years later.

Hard To Follow

There is a lot of dialog and not enough background.
Sometimes the performance of the dialog makes it hard to identify who is talking. That's distracting.
Definitely not my favorite LeCarre and I'll probably avoid Michael Jayston in the future.

Another John Masterpiece

Although set in “Spyland,” this story, like all of those by LaCarré, are about people and their lives under great pressure. They force us to be introspective and ask, “What would I do?” “Which one of these archetypes represent me?”
Really well done. “Chapeau!”

Even minor LeCarre is still good but...

I admire and adore LeCarre, but this was not one of his best, very speechy, too long. Yet still worth listening to, and the end is chilling.

Pedantic, a bit boring, but with parallels to today

There are interesting characters in this book, representing different sides of the politics, but they tend to speech-talk at great length, one sermon after another. So, there, it was boring.

Nationalists and anti-semites and leaning-east v. leaning-west, and some British diplomats who are fully self-dealing, and two or three that are honorable. Raises the question of what has changed, after all these years since 1968.

A Four Hour Story Crammed Into 13 Hours

le Carré's style is quite verbose, but this was excessive. Conversations that go on 20 minutes longer than necessary and irrelevant lengthy descriptions move the story along at a snails pace.

All power corrupts.

"All power corrupts. The loss of power corrupts even more."

Throughout most of this early le Carré novel, I was convinced I would probably rate it three stars. It was interesting, but plodded at times. It seemed a little provincial, a bit dated, ended up being historically incorrect, and seemed almost like le Carré was writing a Henry James ghost story more than a le Carré thriller.

However, by the end I loved it. Chapter 17 (Praschko) right before the Epilogue (a conversation between Praschko, Turner and Bradfield) was absolutely genius. It was one of the most powerful chapters in any book I've come across that wasn't originally written in Russian.

This is very British.

Ultimately an enjoyable, if not challenging, read. The narrator does a pretty good job of distinguishing characters through accents, which is especially helpful when two characters have conversations without any other indication of who is speaking. Lots of homophobia, so if that's a trigger, steer clear.

A slow burning spy thriller

Even by Le Carre's standards this book takes a while to build up. The first half features some very long dialogue scenes as the protagonist investigates the disappearance of a British embassy employee.

I enjoyed the writing but the story definitely felt like it was dragging and I say that as someone who is generally a fan of the author's style.

However, I do think that the book is redeemed by a powerful finale and I was glad that I stuck with it even if some portions were a struggle to get through.