A Small Town in Germany
First edition cover
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| Author | John le Carré |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Thriller |
| Publisher | William Heinemann |
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Publication date
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October 1968 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 304 pp |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 887880 |
| 823/.9/14 | |
| LC Class | PZ4.L4526 Sm PR6062.E33 |
| Preceded by | The Looking-Glass War |
| Followed by | The Naïve and Sentimental Lover |
A Small Town in Germany is a 1968 espionage novel by British author John le Carré. It is set in Bonn, the "small town" of the title, against a background of concern that former Nazis were returning to positions of power in West Germany.
Bonn, the eponymous small town, was chosen as West Germany's capital after World War II mainly due to the advocacy of Konrad Adenauer, Chancellor of West Germany after World War II.
A Small Town in Germany is set in the late 1960s, in Bonn, the capital of West Germany. From London, Alan Turner, of the British Foreign Office, arrives to investigate the disappearance of Leo Harting, a minor British Embassy officer; moreover, secret files have disappeared with him. The embassy's head of Chancery, Rawley Bradfield, is hostile to Turner's investigation. Despite that, he is dinner party host to Turner and Ludwig Siebkron, head of the German Interior Ministry; the latter is close to industrialist Klaus Karfeld, who is successfully building his new political party.
Initially, Turner suspects Leo Harting is a spy, but comes to understand that Harting was secretly investigating Karfeld's Nazi career — as the war-time administrator of a laboratory that poisoned 31 half-Jews. In fact, Harting is hiding from Siebkron, and might assassinate Karfeld. To Turner's chagrin, Bradfield is unsympathetic to Harting's circumstance and uninterested in protecting him, because he considers him a criminal and a political embarrassment.
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