Scala Radio Book Club: The Berlin Exchange by Joseph Kanon
From the author that wrote the international bestsellers Leaving Berlin and The Good German
Last updated 17th Aug 2022
In the Scala Radio Book Club this week (Thursday 24th February), Mark Forrest chatted to American author Joseph Kanon, on his brand-new novel The Berlin Exchange.
From the author that wrote the international bestsellers Leaving Berlin and The Good German, The Berlin Exchange follows an American physicist-KGB operative, who is shipped to East Berlin in a clandestine spy swap, without knowing what has made his return so pivotal.
Berlin. 1963. The height of the Cold War. An early morning spy swap, not at Glienecke Bridge, the familiar setting for such exchanges, or at Checkpoint Charlie, where international visitors cross into the East, but at a more discreet border crossing, usually reserved for East German VIPs, next to the Charite hospital complex.
The Communists are trading two American students caught helping people to escape over the wall and a lower level CIA operative. Not the stuff of headlines and, as planned, no journalists are here to write them. On the other side of the trade: Martin Keller, an American physicist who once indeed made headlines, but who then disappeared into the English prison system. Keller's most critical possession: his American passport. Keller's most ardent desire: to see his ex-wife Sabine and their young son.
The exchange is made with the formality characteristic of these swaps - equal paces to the concrete barrier, etc. - with each side sizing up the relative value of the other. Three for one? Small fry for a nuclear spy? But Martin has other questions: who asked for him? who negotiated the deal? Just the KGB bringing home one of its agents? Or, as he hopes, a more personal intervention? He has worked for the service long enough to know that nothing happens by chance. They want him for something. Not physics - his expertise is years out of date. Something else, which he cannot learn until he arrives in East Berlin, when suddenly the game is afoot.
Filled with intriguing characters, atmospheric detail, and plenty of action, Kanon’s latest espionage thriller is one you won’t soon forget.
Mark was interested to know more about the political situation in Berlin, during the early 1960s.
‘Well, of course, the communist government said that they were just protecting people, and that it was an enhancement but in fact, it was to prevent what was called the “flight from the republic”. So many people were leaving, as they could do in Berlin only. If you were elsewhere in East Germany, you would have to cross a really fortified border. In Berlin, you could just get on the subway on the tube and arrive in the West. Since the Western government maintained that all Germans were in fact, German citizens, once you got off the train, you were fine,’ said Joseph.
Mark asked, ‘You talk about it all the way through the book. This movement of people from East Germany to West Germany in exchange for hard currency, how much did that actually happen?’
‘What happened was that they would take a political prisoner whose crime often would be that he tried to get through the wall, and they would sell him to the Western government who would pay to get these people back. The usual price was the equivalent of about 10,000 US dollars. It would vary depending on the value of the prisoner. If, for instance, you were a doctor, the fee would be much higher because you were a much more valuable person. As many as 33,000 political prisoners were exchanged. If we translate according to the value of today, then it's about 850 million US dollars. That's a lot of money! But what this meant as a moral dilemma for both sides is, to me, a really intriguing question. Do you sell your own people because you need the hard currency? And actually, do you buy them? Is this something that you should be involved in? This forms the background, the exchange, that we see in the beginning of the book.’
Mark wanted to know more about Joseph’s use of language while writing the novel. ‘When you're putting together the dialogue, there are Americans, Germans, Russians, all obviously speaking English in a story set 60 years ago. How much of a challenge is it to make sure that the language you use rings true?
‘One of the traps when you write in period, is to try and keep it neutral, and not to throw in slang that would have been used at the time. It sticks out like a sore thumb. If you were going to write a book set in World War II, it would be very plausible to have an American GI say, “Gee, that's swell”, because people actually did say that then. But if it appears in a book, it looks like a little neon sign saying, “I’ve done period research!” I find it's the same thing with people using brand names. You know, they'll say “he leaned against the building and lit up a Chesterfield”. Well, he doesn't think of it that way. He's just lighting a cigarette.’
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