The Innocent

Though not thought of as an espionage writer, McEwan uncorks a fine, suspenseful novel based on two true stories of Cold War intrigue. Set in mid-1950s Berlin, it speaks, as the title implies, of a loss of innocence, both professionally and personally, of a British engineer caught up in a dangerous web of uncertain loyalties and unexpected violence. (Why are the best espionage novels set in WWII or the Cold War? Most spying is done now through satellites and electronic eavesdropping. It’s hard to write a good book with a satellite as the main character.)

Set in Cold War Berlin, The Innocent is the story of a British post office engineer who becomes embroiled in a secret operation to help the Western Allies tap into Soviet phone lines.

In West Berlin Leonard Marnham, assigned to a British-American surveillance team, is the innocent of the book title, an ordinary man who uses this secret work he’s been given to escape the boredom of his everyday life. Operation Gold is a scheme created jointly by the CIA and MI6 and involves digging a tunnel from West to East Berlin so they can listen in to the KGB’s… show more.

This novel is set in Germany during the Cold War and is based partly on an actual event: a tunnel that was built by the British and Americans to gain access to the Soviets’ communications system. However, it focuses on a fictional character who is an innocent in several senses. I loved the setting, but I also loved the turn in the book where innocence becomes experience in a shocking way. This was a book I couldn’t put down.