Thursday, April 11, 2013

The Charlatan (Der Gaukler) by Harry Thürk


Harry Thürks novel "The Charlatan" is a thriller, first published in 1978 in the GDR. It is a roman a clef. The main female  character Catherine Laborde functions as a CIA-agent, at first unknowingly. The highly educated Franco-American works in Moscow and with her language and literary skills helps create the phenomenon of a nobelprize winner who utterly hates his own society. The  world knows the literary phenomenon of the late sixties under the name of Solshenizin.
Thürk is a journalist and specialist South-East Asia.  He also is a dedicated communist who knows the history of the 20th century well. He took part in WWII.
With his eyes and under the perspectice of  leading CIA personnel  we learn, how the war against the Sowjetunion and the entire  post war socialist world war  was transformed onto a  mental sphere. It includes of course real acts of violence and real wars like the one against Vietnam (and Korea in the early fifties).
Thürk's  sharp analyzes, his exciting way of story telling  and his foresight can be of great help  for  those compatriots who want  help create  a more peaceful world.

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