If you want to survive the Cold War, you have to be tougher than the Iron Curtain... A novel that made the author famous as a revolutionary of the spy genre
Autumn 1961. Because his escape from the newly walled East Berlin ended in disaster and his network of contacts was shot by the local intelligence service, British MI6 agent Alec Leamas is sent to the ice by his superiors. More specifically, put away in the library. He becomes a loser with drunken tendencies, who owes money wherever he looks, and yet he is still filled with rage and the desire to take revenge on his arch rival Mundt. But that would have meant going into the lion's den again as a defector and orchestrating a complex intelligence game in the GDR that would have compromised Mundt as a double agent in the eyes of his secret service. How many layers of lies and pretense will it take for a burned-out Cold War foot soldier to succeed in his mission? And won't they harm themselves behind the Wall with eternal British adherence to morality?
Based on the book, which Time magazine ranked among the world's 100 most important novels, director Martin Ritt made the famous noir spy thriller (1965). The lead role was played by Richard Burton, nominated for an Academy Award for his performance. The character of the East German investigator Karden in the film was played by the exile Jiří Voskovec.
