THE LIAR

Double-agent spies navigate geopolitical tumult from the 1960s to the 1980s.

In a vivid, sprawling tale, Economist correspondent Cunningham focuses on the conflicted loyalties of a disaffected, intellectual Czech couple whose misadventures reflect the institutional decline of espionage as the Cold War wound down. The charismatic Karel Koecher (b. 1934) typified an Eastern Bloc lost generation, pursuing his education even as the Soviets tightened control over Czechoslovakia and daily life became “a grotesque amalgamation of rigidity and absurdity.” Following bouts of youthful intransigence, Koecher positioned himself to be recruited by state security, the StB. “In those days and during the decades to come,” writes the author, “the Czechoslovak state had no recognizable moral center. Everything was contingent. Nothing was clear.” In 1965, Koecher and his wife, Hana, moved to the U.S. under academic cover, leveraging contacts like a Columbia University professor who may have been working for the Defense Intelligence Agency. The young spies made progress in America, yet the global tumult of 1968, including the invasion of Czechoslovakia by other Warsaw Pact nations, increased pressure on them. “The StB did not trust Karel, and he did not trust them,” writes Cunningham. As Hana proved adept in the diamond trade, Karel was recruited by the CIA to translate wiretaps from Soviet embassies and diplomats’ homes, looking for more potential assets to flip. Even the KGB was impressed that Karel, “with no diplomatic cover, penetrated the American government, and found a secure spot within the CIA itself.” Yet he was denounced by a rival who “accused Karel of working for the CIA against the Communist Bloc.” Later, the couple was reactivated, as the Soviets “hoped to belatedly catch up to the changes in American politics,” only to be apprehended by the FBI in 1984, charged with espionage, and traded for the dissident Natan Sharansky. Though the narrative pace occasionally lags, Cunningham delivers a capable spy story.

An often engrossing, well-written tale from the waning days of Cold War espionage.