“We gain our experiences of life in the form of catastrophe,” said Bertold Brecht in his discussion of the detective novel. Catastrophes give us insight into our society: its depressions, revolutions, and wars. Yet as we follow the unfolding narrative, Brecht goes on, “we sense that somebody must have done something to precipitate the catastrophe. So, who did what? The murder has taken place. What transpired beforehand? What situation resulted? Now, we might be able to work it out.”

Brecht’s observation applies equally well to Cold War spy stories such as Deutschland ’83 and The Americans. Reading detective — or spy — fiction can be likened to interpreting the catastrophes of our age.

Writing in the 1930s, Brecht didn’t have to search hard for catastrophes to decipher. Hunger and mass unemployment were followed by the high-tech inferno of modern war, with its Zyklon B, Operation Gomorrah, Fat Man, and Little Boy.