For most of the second half of the Twentieth Century, the world was dominated by two superpowers with opposing ideologies. This atmosphere of fear and distrust made for some riveting stories, told through media like movies, musicals and of course books. With such a wide variety of books on the theme, it may be difficult to choose which Cold War author is your ideal storyteller. It may help you if you know what type of book you're looking for.
The Cold War was different from most wars in history. The two main powers involved, the USA and the USSR, never fought each other directly even though they did get involved in armed conflicts all over the world. Instead, the era was one of extreme political tension where everyone was afraid of firing the first shot in case it would trigger a third world war.
In an atmosphere of mistrust, you have the perfect breeding ground for spies. The Cold War soon became the golden era of the spy novel, especially in the USA and Britain. Few themes can inspire stories of intrigue, drama, adventure and action quite like espionage does.
John Le Carre is one of the leading writers of the spy thriller. His most famous book is probably 'The Spy Who Came In from the Cold' but he also wrote 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy', 'The Constant Gardener' and 'The Russia House', all of which became successful movies too. Le Carre had the advantage that he used to be a spy himself, just like Graham Greene, another master of the genre. Many writers of spy thrillers also used to be journalists, like Frederick Forsythe.
Sometimes a character would come back in spy story after spy story. Several of these characters even made it into cinema history. For instance, Harrison Ford brought Jack Ryan, the secret agent created by Tom Clancy, to life in several films, as did Matt Damon with Jason Bourne, created by Robert Ludlum. Ian Fleming created the ultimate spy hero, a character that almost every male actor would love to play at least once: agent 007, James Bond.
It's not only the USA and UK that produced great storytellers during the Cold War era. From behind the Iron Curtain came the voices of writers like the Czechs Milan Kundera and Vaclav Havel, the latter later president of his country. However, many of these writers' works were suppressed if they were critical of their country's political system and Nobel Prize winner Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn of the Soviet Union and Reinaldo Arenas from Cuba were just two of the authors who were subjected to imprisonment and eventually were expelled from their countries.
If you prefer non-fiction, you'll find a wealth of books that deal with every aspect of the era. There are political analyses, accounts of incidents like the Cuban Missile Crisis and biographies of key figures in the world arena. The stories of regular people are particularly moving, like those told in Anna Funder's 'Stasiland: Stories From Behind the Berlin Wall', about life in communist East Germany.
There are several ways to discover a new favorite Cold War author. One is to simply read every book you can find on the theme. However, it's probably easier and less time-consuming to ask at the library or the bookstore in your area. You'll also find a variety of lists, reviews and suggestions online.
The Cold War was different from most wars in history. The two main powers involved, the USA and the USSR, never fought each other directly even though they did get involved in armed conflicts all over the world. Instead, the era was one of extreme political tension where everyone was afraid of firing the first shot in case it would trigger a third world war.
In an atmosphere of mistrust, you have the perfect breeding ground for spies. The Cold War soon became the golden era of the spy novel, especially in the USA and Britain. Few themes can inspire stories of intrigue, drama, adventure and action quite like espionage does.
John Le Carre is one of the leading writers of the spy thriller. His most famous book is probably 'The Spy Who Came In from the Cold' but he also wrote 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy', 'The Constant Gardener' and 'The Russia House', all of which became successful movies too. Le Carre had the advantage that he used to be a spy himself, just like Graham Greene, another master of the genre. Many writers of spy thrillers also used to be journalists, like Frederick Forsythe.
Sometimes a character would come back in spy story after spy story. Several of these characters even made it into cinema history. For instance, Harrison Ford brought Jack Ryan, the secret agent created by Tom Clancy, to life in several films, as did Matt Damon with Jason Bourne, created by Robert Ludlum. Ian Fleming created the ultimate spy hero, a character that almost every male actor would love to play at least once: agent 007, James Bond.
It's not only the USA and UK that produced great storytellers during the Cold War era. From behind the Iron Curtain came the voices of writers like the Czechs Milan Kundera and Vaclav Havel, the latter later president of his country. However, many of these writers' works were suppressed if they were critical of their country's political system and Nobel Prize winner Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn of the Soviet Union and Reinaldo Arenas from Cuba were just two of the authors who were subjected to imprisonment and eventually were expelled from their countries.
If you prefer non-fiction, you'll find a wealth of books that deal with every aspect of the era. There are political analyses, accounts of incidents like the Cuban Missile Crisis and biographies of key figures in the world arena. The stories of regular people are particularly moving, like those told in Anna Funder's 'Stasiland: Stories From Behind the Berlin Wall', about life in communist East Germany.
There are several ways to discover a new favorite Cold War author. One is to simply read every book you can find on the theme. However, it's probably easier and less time-consuming to ask at the library or the bookstore in your area. You'll also find a variety of lists, reviews and suggestions online.
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