Martin, an American physicist who has been serving time in a British prison for espionage, is confused as to why now, in 1963, he's been released to the GDR. Could it be because his ex-wife Sabine is married to Kurt, a fixer of sorts who, among other things, negotiates spy swaps? Or because his son Peter, who has grown up without him, is now a media star (such as it is in the GDR)? That's enough of a mystery and then someone shoots at Martin and Kurt- but which is them is the target. This works well as an atmospheric look at the GDR in the early 1960s. The characters are well drawn and the plot has a few twists- no spoilers from me. One big quibble- sincerely doubt Martin would still have a US passport. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. Kanon's fans will be pleased with this as will those who enjoy more cerebral tales of espionage.

As a middle school student in the early 1960s, I was intrigued by the stories of the Berlin Wall, the various escapes, and prisoner exchanges, most notably Gary Powers. My memory is reading something about Powers in a Weekly Reader at school. I wanted to read The Berlin Exchange. I felt the exchange scene at the beginning of the book was exciting. During this time, we find out that Martin has been in a British prison for ten years. Kurt, a lawyer who handles exchanges and also the husband of Martin’s ex-wife, Sabine, and mother of Martin’s son, Peter, are introduced.

While the book is off to a good start, I soon found myself lost several times in dialogue and trying to figure out who was speaking. I had to keep rereading in several spots. I think shorter chapters might have helped. I did find the story interesting. My thanks to Scribner and NetGalley for an ARC of this book. The opinions in this review are my own.

It’s 1963, a time of the Cold War with spies, Communists, and thoughts of escape to the West. Martin is being released from a British Prison where he has been serving time for espionage. He’s to be transferred to East Berlin and he doesn’t know why, other than the fact that his ex-wife has had something to do with it. He’s looking forward to seeing her and getting to know his son. But his Russian handler has resurfaced and he has plans for Martin to resume spying. Martin doesn’t want to spy, especially when told the name of the person he’s supposed to keep under surveillance. Hoping to get to know his 11-year-old son and maybe to reconnect with his ex, he decides the best way to do that is by fleeing East Berlin with them. The question is: how to do this without attracting the attention of his handler, the Stasi, and/or his wife’s current husband?

There are a lot of holes in the story, making it hard to fully sympathize with the protagonist. Several red herrings are thrown in to add suspense, but at times the pace is somewhat slow. On the other hand, the last chapter is a bit of a nail-biter, fast-paced with an unexpected twist. All-in-all, I enjoyed reading this espionage thriller.

The Berlin Exchange was the first Cold War Era spy novel I read in a long time and it didn't disappoint.

The suspense and mystery were top rate but I was able to figure out a lot of it before the end. However, that didn't take away my enjoyment of the story.

The narrative started in the middle when the exchange was made and we were given glimpses of the past as the story progressed. It helped the reader to understand an American who passed secrets and empathize with his quest to reunite with his ex-wife and son.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Berlin, 1963. Martin Keller is being exchanged into East Berlin for some westerners who had been imprisoned in the DDR. Martin himself has been in prison for 15 years in Britain as an atomic spy. Martin was one of those atomic scientists working on the Manhattan Project in World War II who thought that nuclear secrets should be shared with the USSR because they were our allies and because it was too dangerous to have that kind of power in just one country’s hands.

Martin can’t figure out why he’s being treated as a valuable asset to be exchanged. His scientific knowledge is many years out of date. He thought he was a forgotten man. He learns that his wife, Sabine, who he agreed should divorce him when he went to prison, has a new husband, Kurt, whose job as a lawyer is to arrange prisoner exchanges. Sabine says that Peter, the son she had with Martin, is growing up and she wants him to know his father, so she got Kurt to pulls strings.

But from the day of his arrival, it’s clear there is far more to it than that. After he comes over the border, an ambulance comes speeding up and someone shoots at Martin and Kurt. But who is the target, Martin or Kurt? And why? As Martin gets to know Kurt, he learns that there is an underside to the prisoner-exchange program, having to do with the West paying the East a large per-head fee for some prisoners, especially citizens who had unsuccessfully attempted to flee the East. Naturally, a program like that is ripe for corruption. Maybe Kurt is part of that?

And Martin soon learns that there are other people in East Berlin from his past, people who want something from him. But Martin comes to want something too, and his careful, determined, long-range mind puts together an audacious plan to get it.

I always expect a good story from Joseph Kanon, and I wasn’t disappointed. This is an intricate and thoughtful espionage story, with a cinematically dramatic ending.

I haven't read Joseph Kanon previously but had heard good things. The excerpt sounded interesting so I gave it a try. I love espionage thrillers but The Berlin Exchange left me wanting for more. I tried and tried to get into but couldn't. I kept picking it up and putting it down. From the time I started it, it took about 5 months and I finished probably 40ish books in between. Intriguing characters and redeeming qualities of the "good guys" can hide a lot of blemishes in the story. Unfortunately, The Berlin Exchange fell short in all of the above. However, the ending had a surprise, which was nice.

I want to thank Joseph Kanon, Scribner, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of The Berlin Exchange.

I do not usually read espionage novels, so this was an opportunity to try something different. I had never read this author before. I do like thrillers and crime novels. I like exciting fiction, and I thought this might be exciting. I am also interested in Cold War era fiction.
Unfortunately, with the exception of when the people were actually escaping East Germany, I did not find this book exciting.
The author did establish the setting and atmosphere well. The characters seemed decently developed. I found the underlying reality of exchange of prisoners between East and West Germany very interesting.
Much of this novel was comprised on dialogue, pages of dialogue. The author relied very heavily on dialogue to tell this story and drive the plot. It actually felt out of proportion. I read pages of dialogue during which not much seemed to happen. I guess the author was establishing relationships between the characters; however, much of it seemed like routine conversation that I readily skimmed to get to the meatier parts of the story.
The premise and situation were interesting, but I found the execution much less so. Maybe people who regularly read espionage fiction would appreciate this book more than I did.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an unbiased review.

I thank the author and Scribner/Simon and Shuster for giving me access to an ARC via NetGalley.

Mr. Kanon has been a favorite author of mine, for his many-layered novels with lots of human interest across a wide variety of WWII and Cold War locales. He creates a world filled with dread and fear, justifiably, and is highly skilled at building tension. The reader must look between the lines for subtle clues, that’s his style.

This novel is not one of my favorites. It feels rather “thin” with a rushed ending and a hero who is not as easy to admire as many of his other leading characters. I missed the backstory for Martin Keller: how did he end up spying for Russia as a double agent (no spoiler here, it’s obvious from page 1)? How did his years in an English prison change him?

Keller is parachuted into much tension and drama in East Berlin. The description of post-war life in East Germany is filled with moral ambiguity (to put it mildly) and a wide disparity in wealth and security.

I enjoyed the adventure aspects of the story and the examination of a split family. I just wish it had been more developed, less rushed. I look forward to his next creation. 3 stars.

Early in the cold war it was almost impossible to go from East Germany to West Germany. A wall divided the country into four zones. People trying to get from the east to the west were often shot by the border guards. The thinking was that they were taking vital state secrets from the east to the west.

This story centers on a man who was going from the west to the east. He was a nuclear scientist who helped on the Manhattan Project. These people were closely monitored by their governments.

The protagonist, however, fell in love with and married a woman in the east and had a son. His objective was to get his wife and son out of the eastern block and ultimately into the west, but being caught crossing the border could result in instant execution. His wife is suffering from bad health and her husband wants to get her to hospitals in the west.

Read the book and observe the arguments between the characters as they discuss the problems with getting the family across the border. It should be enlightening for those who did not live through the era! 4.0 - CE Williams

If you like a good spy novel, Joseph Kanon’s The Berlin Exchange should be on your TBR list. For those of us who remember the Cold War in the early 1960s, with a wall dividing East and West Berlin, no side trusting any other, and widespread anxiety about who would (not if) detonate the atomic bomb, The Berlin Exchange will evoke vivid memories. Although the story becomes a bit convoluted at times, most readers will be on the edge of their seat throughout. Kanin is a master of the genre.

In “The Berlin Exchange,” author Joseph Kanon gives us an absorbing tale of espionage reminiscent of classic films and novels such as “The Spy Who Came in from the Cold,” “Torn Curtain,” “Armageddon,” and “Topaz.”

The time: 1963. The place: East Berlin.

Ten years ago, American physicist and communist Martin Keller was imprisoned in England for providing British atomic secrets to the Soviet Union's KGB. Now, he’s being released in a prisoner exchange with East Germany. Why East Germany? Because that’s where his ex-wife and the son he’s never met now live (with their new husband and stepfather, a prominent, deal-making lawyer responsible for arranging Martin’s release); and because the East Germans would like Martin to work on their nuclear program; and because the KGB wants him to spy on other scientists in East Germany’s program, including his best friend. Martin had been hoping for a quiet life. Instead, he is compelled to search for a way to extricate himself and his ex-wife and son from a country governed by oppression, deceit, and betrayal before he is re-imprisoned, this time by the East Germans, for a murder he did not commit. The plan he devises turns out to be quite elegant. But we don’t learn what that plan is until the very end. Which is one of the reasons we keep turning the pages.

It’s a very good novel filled with danger (but not a lot of violence), romance and devotion (but very little sex), complex plotting, and more than a few surprises.

I thought Mr. Kanon’s characters first-rate: very human, very realistic, and solidly grounded in believable motivations and objectives. Even though Martin provided vital secrets to the Soviets, and thus is a traitor in the eyes of the West, Kanon manages to make him very likable, even admirable. We care what happens to him and his ex-wife (the love of his life) and his son.

And Mr. Kanon adeptly portrays 1963 East Germany; its drabness--gray skies over rubble remaining from WWII intermixed with squat, sterile, Soviet-style office and apartment complexes; its oppressiveness—the ever-present Stasi (secret police), constant surveillance, neighbor spying on neighbor, co-worker reporting on co-worker, no one ever able to trust anyone; and its meanness—its most talented citizens scratching for privileges by doing only what the state wants.

All of this is delivered in a distinctive style of prose—short sentences, sometimes mere phrases, fired in staccato bursts. For the most part, it’s effective, giving the novel a noire-like quality.

It's a very good espionage thriller, more Le Carre than Fleming, Ludlum, or DaSilva, more thoughtful than action-oriented, and with quite a message about the dangers inherent in building a communist/totalitarian society.

My thanks to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC. The foregoing is my independent opinion.

OK readers, it’s time once again for our every so often segment, Not So Great Moments In History. Today’s topic: The Cold War ( which I hear is heating up again). Our visual ( or audio ) aid will be Joseph Kanon’s new espionage treatise, #TheBerlinExchange, guaranteed to please all the spy book aficionados out there in reader land. Ah, who could forget the charms of The Cold War ? EastGermany', The Wall, The Stasi, The Bomb, and secrets, secrets, secrets. Into this world is released our bad boy hero, Martin Keller, American Physicist who worked in Los Alamos and Harwell, and in his spare time passed highly secret information to The Communists, for which he just spent ten years in prison. It’s now 1963 and he is mysteriously released into East Germany, but why ? Yes, his ex wife Sabine and son Peter are there living comfortably, but what were the machinations that brought Keller to be with them ? For this we must look to the reason he spied in the first place and the ironies he now faces in his newly found “ freedom” living in a police state. One might say Martin is The Spy Who Went Into The Cold , as he discovers the difference between Capitalism and Communism, Democracy and Dictatorship is in reality the difference between the have nots, the haves, and the have mores. Kanon fill’s #TheBerlinExchange with very human characters and moves the narrative at a breakneck pace allowing it to rightly fit in with some of its best Cold War Thriller predecessors. Five stars. You can go back to work now.

Joseph Kanon is a master at creating reality in a novel. This story takes place in East Berlin in 1963 a divided Germany before the reunification of Germany when the Stasi still ruled and life was cheap and people vanished without traces. It was a world of turmoil and lacking in trust.
It reeks of authenticity and I speak from experience having had an incident in East Germany that almost was terrifying and, I later found out, could have ended in disaster. The fear of the STASI and the state was real and their control frightening.
In the book, Martin Keller is a physicist who stole secrets from the US and was imprisoned in England. and he is being exchanged for some other prisoners. His ex-wife Sabine and their son Peter live in the Berlin of the cold war, Peter is the star of a state-approved show about a family in Berlin. Sabine is married to Kurt now and he is a complicated individual who may or may not be trustworthy but is definitely into some shady dealings.
Life in East Berlin is not bad for them as they have privileges and compared to others a reasonably good life but could there should there be something else?
The author moves the story along smoothly and believably as he takes the reader from one character to another from one setting to another. There are spies, there are other scientists and a patchwork of people that weaves a rich fabric in the story.
It is a very well-written story and the characters are well-drawn and very real one can imagine them. And as the story unfolds the unimaginable becomes reality and tension builds to a riveting climax.
I highly recommend this book.

The Berlin Exchange by Joseph Kanon- Always a welcome addition to my reading list is a Joseph Kanon spy novel, and this is no exception. No James Bond dramatics here. As usual Kanon keeps the action sparse and realistic. He uses subtle changes in dialog and behavior and brings tension into the simplest conversation. It's 1963 and Martin Keller has been in a British prison for being a spy during WWII. Suddenly he is being exchanged for three men of little consequence and being brought to Berlin. A physicist who fed the Russians secrets to help them make their own Atomic bombs, his science is old and outdated, and he can't figure out why or who wants him so badly at this late date. He expects the KGB to pick him up, but no, the East Germans have him now, and the man who meets him is now married to Keller's ex-wife. Things get darker as the strings of intrigue enclose Keller in a tight web.

Berlin Exchange provides an engrossing picture of spycraft in East Germany during the height of the Cold War in the early 1960s. Set in dreary East Berlin, the story focuses on the life of fictional nuclear physicist and spy Martin Keller after his release from a British prison to the East Germans in a prisoner exchange.

Keller, an American who had fallen in love with and married a German communist during WWII had become a spy for the Soviets and East Germans, betraying the West's nuclear secrets. Divorced after his imprisonment, it is his former wife and her new husband, a go between for the release of East German political prisoners to the West for hard currency, who arrange for his release. But looking to start life anew, to rekindle his relationship with the young son (now a star on East German tv) and to use his expertise to develop nuclear power plants, not bombs, he is dragged -- reluctantly -- back into the service of the East German government.

The author blends a combination mystery and spy thriller with an examination of the East German post-war society that turned neighbors into spies for the Stasi and that caused Keller to reflect on whether he had advanced the cause for which he had turned into a spy. A gripping read from start to finish, I recommend it highly.

There's a good story here buried underneath a welter of detail about the Cold War situation in 1963. Briefly, Martin Keller, an American physicist who has been imprisoned by the Brits for sharing nuclear secrets with the East, has been released in a prisoner swap which returns him to East Berlin, where his former wife is now living with a new husband and a son by her earlier marriage to Martin. Various machinations follow, ending in a truly riveting car chase in which Martin attempts to get his ex and his son to the West, but the overall narrative drive of the novel is blunted by a plethora of detail about the Cold War that's almost impossible to follow for anyone not thoroughly grounded in the details of the period.

A good espionage thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Who can you trust, is love enough, everyone is watching over their shoulders. A mad dash at the end to try and escape, how will it end. This book will keep you turning the pages. Thank you to net galley for an advanced readers copy.

It's far too easy to crown an author a "master of the espionage thriller" ...but Joseph Kanon deserves the title. THE BERLIN EXCHANGE delivers all the signature elements of a Kanon novel: a mounting sense of tension, richly conflicted characters, a superbly recreated sense of time and place. John le Carre may no longer be with us, but Joe Kanon's works fill that slot on the shelf. Highly recommended.

A very good spying type of story from Kanon. a true master story teller. East Germany during the height of the Cold War an American who was spying for the East Germans is returned but not all is as it seems.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an e ARC of this book.
This is an old time espionage tale. Somehow I was not aware of the details of the events that occurred in the divided Berlin. Interesting read but not riveting. It plodded to a bit of a surprise ending.