A reading list for fans of 'The Americans'
If you can't get enough of "The Americans," these Cold War thrillers and espionage exposes will liven up your reading life.
The television show, which is returning for its fourth season, follows two Soviet agents posing as married travel agents in the Americans suburbs.
Elizabeth and Phillip struggle to root out moles, carry out surveillance and fight for the motherland, all while balancing the pressures of raising two children in the consumer culture of America in the 1980s.
If you're craving some literary spycraft, or wondering about real encounters with Russian spies, add these to your "must-read" list.
Create a More Connected Minnesota
MPR News is your trusted resource for the news you need. With your support, MPR News brings accessible, courageous journalism and authentic conversation to everyone - free of paywalls and barriers. Your gift makes a difference.
A reading list for fans of "The Americans"
Nonfiction
"Deception: The Untold Story of East-West Espionage Today" by Edward Lucas
"Spy stories always fascinate, and Lucas has real ones to share," Foreign Affairs wrote in its review of "Deception."
The book features the story of the 10 Russian spies who made headlines in 2010 when they were found to be living as Americans. Ultimately, they were sent back to Russia as part of a prisoner swap, but not before capturing the country's imagination.
If you're looking for a dose of real Russian espionage to pair with your viewing of "The Americans," this will do it.
Fiction
"Charm School" by Nelson DeMille
If you've wondered how Russian sleeper agents learn to play Americans so convincingly, DeMille's classic thriller will indulge your conspiracy theories.
When an American tourist in Russia picks up a hitchhiking U.S. prisoner of war, he's dragged into one of the KGB's biggest secrets: "Charm School," a facility where agents are trained in the ways of the West. Their teachers are none other than kidnapped American servicemen who have been missing since Vietnam.
"The Expats" by Chris Pavone
If you had spies for neighbors, would you even notice? And if you noticed, would you say anything?
That's the conundrum facing Kate Moore, a woman who gives up her job and moves to Luxembourg when her husband is offered a new position. They befriend another American couple, but Kate thinks they might be hiding something.
When her own husband starts acting suspiciously, the new life she's tried to build — and the old one she's tried to hide — come crashing together.
"You are One of Them" by Elliott Holt
Ten-year-old best friends Sarah and Jennifer, living under the threat of nuclear war in the 1980s, decide to write letters to Soviet leader Yuri Andropov, asking for peace.
The Kremlin writes back — but only to Jennifer. The USSR invites her to visit, creating an international media sensation and driving a wedge between the two friends. Sarah has still not forgiven her when Jennifer and her family die in a plane crash.
Ten years later, Sarah finds out the plane crash may have been part of a larger conspiracy, and Jennifer may still be alive. She travels to the former Soviet Union to unravel the mystery. The New York Times called it "a hugely absorbing first novel from a writer with a fluid, vivid style and a rare knack for balancing the pleasure of entertainment with the deeper gratification of insight."
"The Company" by Robert Littell
Are you on the side of Agent Stan Beeman? Dive into the twisted world of American spycraft.
This bestselling espionage classic spans four decades of CIA exploits, from 1950 to 1995. Littell lays a fictional web of characters over real life historical events: The books imagines the schemes, plots and backroom deals behind the Cold War, the Bay of Pigs, the fall of Budapest and early forays into Afghanistan.
"This impressive doorstopper of a book is like a family historical saga, except that the family is the American intelligence community," Publishers Weekly wrote.
"Sweet Tooth" by Ian McEwan
Take a trip to Britain for this Cold War thriller with plenty of covert action.
Set in 1972, the story centers on Serena, a Cambridge student recruited to spy by her older lover, who is an agent with MI5. The story is narrated by Serena 40 years after the intrigue, danger and betrayals have unfolded. It begins:
"My name is Serena Frome (rhymes with plume) and almost 40 years ago I was sent on a secret mission for the British security service. I didn't return safely. Within 18 months of joining I was sacked, having disgraced myself and ruined my lover, though he certainly had a hand in his own undoing."
"Red Love" by David Evanier
Married spies with a doomed future? "Red Love" goes there.
Evanier takes the story of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg and turns it on its head in this darkly comedic spin on history. The Rosenbergs were sent to the electric chair in 1953 for sharing nuclear secrets with the Soviet Union. Here, he reimagines them as Solomon and Dolores Rubell.
The book follows Gerald Lerner, a fictional writer, as he tries to pen a book on the Rubells decades after their execution. He begins placing ads in the newspaper, looking for former Soviet spies willing to share their secrets. His research takes him through a world of Communism, pornographic films and the distant relatives of the condemned couple.