The Turncoat

By Siegfried Lenz

Translated by John Cullen

384 pages

Written in 1951; posthumously published in 2020

The Turncoat is the story of a German soldier’s experience of World War II, fighting for a cause, falling in love, struggling for survival, doubting his beliefs, being captured, joining the partisans, and then finally, after the war, questioning that decision.

The plot has three parts: the protagonist as a German soldier, as a Soviet partisan, and as an office worker under Soviet control.

What unifies the three parts are three themes: the mundanity and absurdity of war, the human impulse to survive, and the questionable tenacity of conviction.

The plot is not gripping, but it’s liberally peppered with incidents, actions, and conversations that are themselves interesting and serve to hold the reader’s interest to the end. The themes (as described above) are presented more in dialog than in action, which renders them more abstract and less convincing. Nonetheless, they raise worthy questions:

* Does a soldier’s allegiance to his country outweigh his moral conscience?

* Is an immoral act committed in war and under orders excusable?

* More generally, is it possible to be a good person involved in a bad cause?

* And perhaps the most important one for Lenz: Is it possible to be absolved from guilt?

My gold standard for rating ambitious books like this is: Has it changed me in some way? The answer to that, in this case, is no. So I would not call this a great book. But I’m the minority in that opinion. As you can see below, most of the critical response to The Turncoat has been very positive.

Note: In preparing for the Mules’ discussion of The Turncoat, I came across this video of a German war veteran recounting the atrocities of his fellow soldiers. Whether or not you read the book, I think you’ll find it interesting.

Critical Reviews 

“Never has the aftermath for Germans been better depicted than in Siegfried Lenz’s elegiac, The Turncoat. A newly discovered masterpiece.” (Alex Kershaw)

“This antiwar satire would have been quite a shock to the system of a wounded, divided postwar Germany… darkly comic… explosive… persuasive.” (New York Times Book Review)

 “Lenz effectively mines his experiences in the German army [as a deserter and prisoner of war] for this memorable account… [His] meaningful exploration of loyalty owed to one’s country and family is packed with thrills and chills.” (Publishers Weekly)

Interesting Facts 

* Rejected by his German publisher, who thought that the story of a German soldier defecting to the Soviet side would be unwelcome in the context of the Cold War (1947-1991), Lenz’s manuscript was forgotten for nearly 70 years before being rediscovered after his death. A posthumous triumph.

* As far as I can determine, The Turncoat has been translated into 10 languages (including Catalan and Slovenian) before appearing in English and, inevitably, being published by the small, independent Other Press.