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An autumn evening in 1937. A German engineer arrives at the Warsaw railway station. Tonight, he will be with his Polish mistress; tomorrow, at a workers’ bar in the city’s factory district, he will meet with the military attaché from the French embassy. Information will be exchanged for money. So begins The Spies of Warsaw, the brilliant new novel by Alan Furst, lauded by The New York Times as “America’s preeminent spy novelist.”
War is coming to Europe. French and German intelligence operatives are locked in a life-and-death struggle on the espionage battlefield. At the French embassy, the new military attaché, Colonel Jean-Francois Mercier, a decorated hero of the 1914 war, is drawn into a world of abduction, betrayal, and intrigue in the diplomatic salons and back alleys of Warsaw. At the same time, the handsome aristocrat finds himself in a passionate love affair with a Parisian woman of Polish heritage, a lawyer for the League of Nations.
Colonel Mercier must work in the shadows, amid an extraordinary cast of venal and dangerous characters–Colonel Anton Vyborg of Polish military intelligence; the mysterious and sophisticated Dr. Lapp, senior German Abwehr officer in Warsaw; Malka and Viktor Rozen, at work for the Russian secret service; and Mercier’s brutal and vindictive opponent, Major August Voss of SS counterintelligence. And there are many more, some known to Mercier as spies, some never to be revealed.
The Houston Chronicle has described Furst as “the greatest living writer of espionage fiction.” The Spies of Warsaw is his finest novel to date–the history precise, the writing evocative and powerful, more a novel about spies than a spy novel, exciting, atmospheric, erotic, and impossible to put down.
“As close to heaven as popular fiction can get.”
–Los Angeles Times, about The Foreign Correspondent
“What gleams on the surface in Furst’s books is his vivid, precise evocation of mood, time, place, a letter-perfect re-creation of the quotidian details of World War II Europe that wraps around us like the rich fug of a wartime railway station.”
–Time
“A rich, deeply moving novel of suspense that is equal parts espionage thriller, European history and love story.”
–Herbert Mitgang, The New York Times, about Dark Star
“Some books you read. Others you live. They seep into your dreams and haunt your waking hours until eventually they seem the stuff of memory and experience. Such are the novels of Alan Furst, who uses the shadowy world of espionage to illuminate history and politics with immediacy.”
–Nancy Pate, Orlando Sentinel
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Release date
June 3, 2008 -
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9781588367167
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9781588367167
- File size: 2385 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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Publisher's Weekly
Starred review from April 14, 2008
Furst (The Foreign Correspondent
) solidifies his status as a master of historical spy fiction with this compelling thriller set in 1937 Poland. Col. Jean-François Mercier, a military attaché at the French embassy in Warsaw who runs a network of spies, plays a deadly game of cat-and-mouse with his German adversaries. When one of Mercier’s main agents, Edvard Uhl, an engineer at a large Düsseldorf arms manufacturer who’s been a valuable source on the Nazis’ new weapons, becomes concerned that the Gestapo is on to him, Mercier initially dismisses Uhl’s fears. Mercier soon realizes that the risk to his spy is genuine, and he’s forced to scramble to save Uhl’s life. The colonel himself later takes to the field when he hears reports that the German army is conducting maneuvers in forested terrain. Even readers familiar with the Germans’ attack through the Ardennes in 1940 will find the plot suspenseful. As ever, Furst excels at creating plausible characters and in conveying the mostly tedious routines of real espionage. Author tour. -
Library Journal
Starred review from April 1, 2008
Furst's latest novel is sure to be counted as one of the very best of the historical espionage genre. Literate, admirably plotted, and featuring a memorable protagonist, it is realistic and sad but hopeful and romantic. A highly competent French army officer, Jean-François Mercier is assigned in 1937 to military attaché duty in Warsaw, a position recognized by all as an opportunity, if not a duty, to engage in spying. Mercier is a World War I combat-wounded hero, a widower whose behavior reveals a nobility and a sense of honor mostly lacking in today's fiction heroes. Using Polish and German agents, he engages in thrilling derring-do and soon recognizes the sinister intentions of the Nazis, which the French high command apparently chooses to ignore. He does his best to alert the French General Staff, especially as to German invasion strategy. Furst brilliantly captures the setting, along with the cynicism of the Warsaw sociopolitical scene. His presentation of Mercier's romantic interludes with a Parisian woman of Polish heritage is sophisticated, elegant, and discreet. Enthusiastically recommended for all libraries. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 2/1/08.]Jonathan Pearce, California State Univ., StanislausCopyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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Booklist
Starred review from March 15, 2008
Its the autumn of 1937, and the shadows of war are darkening over Warsaw. Colonel Jean-Francois Mercier, military attach' with the French embassy (a spy, that is), doesnt like what hes hearing, wherever he snoops. The Poles know trouble is coming but arent prepared for it, and the French, who might still be able to prepare, are convinced they are impregnable. As spies from throughout Europe gather at sundry diplomatic functions to trade innuendos, Mercier stumbles across what could be the real thing: access to a renegade Nazi who might be able to broker a deal that could give the French knowledge of German attack plans. This is Fursts wheelhouse, of course, Europe sliding toward war, intelligence flowing as freely as wine in every caf', romance (a shadow sport, like espionage) flourishing as tanks gather at the border.Furst uses essentially the same setting (Warsaw stands in for Paris this time) andestablishes the same moodin most of his novels, but he always gives us something new, some heretofore unrevealed angle of vision. This time its a behind-the-scenes look at French spies trying to convince French politicians to open their eyes. Thats the big picture, but as always, its the human side of the drama that draws us: Mercier, the career soldier, falling in love at the wrong time with a Polish lawyer and attempting to carve out an individual life in the midst of international chaos. Nobody does this stuff better than Furst because nobody can dramatize like he can thehorrible realization that somebody elses politics will soon obliterate daily life as you know it.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.) -
Publisher's Weekly
Starred review from July 28, 2008
Furst, master of the historical spy novel, offers this meticulously detailed and sprawling epic set at the onset of WWII. Drenched in romance and espionage and given to thrilling plot twists, the novel is beautifully realized by Daniel Gerroll, whose mastery of variously accented English dialects lends added authenticity to Furst's tale. Providing gritty and realistic German, French, and even Russian accents, Englishman Gerroll displays a natural stage presence and true performance ability. There is a subtle theatrical aspect at play here as well, creating a mysterious and enchanting atmosphere for the audience. A Random hardcover (Reviews, Apr. 14). -
Library Journal
October 1, 2015
Perennial best seller Furst writes some of the best historical fiction now being published, adding a touch of romance to the seedy world of espionage. This title is a good place for new readers to begin; it concerns a French military attache assigned to glean information about the rising Nazi threat in Warsaw. (LJ 4/1/08)
Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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- English
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