Three sentences into Kingdom of Shadows, you are already traveling deep in Alan Furst's world--a dark, sharply etched, pre-war Europe, electric with menace: "On March 10, 1938, the night train from Budapest pulled into the Gare du Nord... There were storms in the Ruhr Valley and down through Picardy and the sides of the wagons-lits glistened with rain. In the station at Vienna, a brick had been thrown at the window of the first-class compartment, leaving a frosted star in the glass." In six novels, beginning with the revelatory, intricate Night Soldiers--one of the richest spy books ever written--Furst has packed his brooding geography of the '30s and '40s with Nazi spymasters, Soviet assassins, Balkan bandits, rioting Fascists and ordinary neighbors turned slippery and vicious by fear. The Furstian hero, as with Kingdom of Shadows's Hungarian aristocrat Nicolas Morath, operates under the grinding pressure of imminent violence with too little information and too few decent choices. Though he's American, Furst has so far created a far bigger splash in England than back home, perhaps because he has removed America almost entirely from the stage, favoring instead the exiled and occupied of France and Central Europe, characters he seems to know from some intimate bone-knowledge. Think Le Carre without the binary certainties of the Cold War. With his two most recent books, Kingdom of Shadows and The Polish Officer, finally available here in paperback this fall, Alan Furst should begin getting his due as the most literate and inspired American writing espionage novels today.
Thomas Jackson
New York Times bestselling author Alan Furst is internationally renowned as master of the European espionage thriller. Unfolding in September of 1939 as Hitler's Wehrmacht ravages Warsaw, The Polish Officer discloses the clandestine existence of Polish Military Intelligence.
Captain Alexander de Milja understands that his life, as he knows it, is over. But even in this bleakest of circumstances, all need not be lost. At a decimated cavalry stable under the droning of German bombers, Alexander is offered a choice: die in a last stand, or accept a new appointment-and discover a way to keep on fighting even in the face of defeat. His first mission: lead the final refugee train south from doomed Warsaw.
With delicately wrought prose and a historian's eye for detail, Alan Furst offers a powerful, emotionally challenging addition to his stellar catalogue.
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Captain Alexander de Milja understands that his life, as he knows it, is over. But even in this bleakest of circumstances, all need not be lost. At a decimated cavalry stable under the droning of German bombers, Alexander is offered a choice: die in a last stand, or accept a new appointment-and discover a way to keep on fighting even in the face of defeat. His first mission: lead the final refugee train south from doomed Warsaw.
With delicately wrought prose and a historian's eye for detail, Alan Furst offers a powerful, emotionally challenging addition to his stellar catalogue.
The Polish Officer: A Novel
New York Times bestselling author Alan Furst is internationally renowned as master of the European espionage thriller. Unfolding in September of 1939 as Hitler's Wehrmacht ravages Warsaw, The Polish Officer discloses the clandestine existence of Polish Military Intelligence.
Captain Alexander de Milja understands that his life, as he knows it, is over. But even in this bleakest of circumstances, all need not be lost. At a decimated cavalry stable under the droning of German bombers, Alexander is offered a choice: die in a last stand, or accept a new appointment-and discover a way to keep on fighting even in the face of defeat. His first mission: lead the final refugee train south from doomed Warsaw.
With delicately wrought prose and a historian's eye for detail, Alan Furst offers a powerful, emotionally challenging addition to his stellar catalogue.
Captain Alexander de Milja understands that his life, as he knows it, is over. But even in this bleakest of circumstances, all need not be lost. At a decimated cavalry stable under the droning of German bombers, Alexander is offered a choice: die in a last stand, or accept a new appointment-and discover a way to keep on fighting even in the face of defeat. His first mission: lead the final refugee train south from doomed Warsaw.
With delicately wrought prose and a historian's eye for detail, Alan Furst offers a powerful, emotionally challenging addition to his stellar catalogue.
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The Polish Officer: A Novel
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Product Details
BN ID: | 2940170992126 |
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Publisher: | Recorded Books, LLC |
Publication date: | 03/10/2008 |
Edition description: | Unabridged |
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