Dark Star

"Sooner or later, . . . things fall into place and, often as not, you'd rather they hadn't." Andre Szara, a Soviet Jewish journalist originally from the Pale of Settlement, is ordered to retrieve a package from Prague. Hidden within is a secret dossier that initially seems of little worth. As the story unfolds, however, Szara is drawn into rings of spies, factions and counter-factions, Gestapo and anti-Gestapo, Old Bolsheviks and new Stalinists. Szara does not know who is working for whom, who will be killed next, or whether he can trust any of them. As the story takes place from the end of 1937 through 1940, the backdrop to all of this is an increasingly bellicose and anti-Semitic Nazi Germany, echoed by the Stalinist purges of intellectuals in the NKVD and throughout Soviet society. And no one knows this period -- right down to the details -- better than Alan Furst. From doors that open "the width of an eye" to wireless transmitters humming through the night, from Gestapo boarding trains to pre-war diplomats in formal suits, Furst owns this turf. Thanks to his skill, you can feel throughout the drumbeat of impending war. Five stars does not begin to do justice to the works of Alan Furst. The history, both the broad events and small details, is impeccable. (In this novel, Furst presents a fascinating, and to my knowledge, original, explanation for the Hitler-Stalin pact.) And he really knows how to write. I found myself rereading sentences because they expressed thoughts or feelings to perfection. This novel is rich in history, lyrically written with a master's eye. If you like it, you will also enjoy Night Soldiers, Furst's novel of a Bulgarian NKVD agent during the Spanish Civil War.

This work has a lot in common with "Night Soldiers", because it, once again, concerns itself with Russian espionage prior to World War II. Indeed, some of the minor characters from "Night Soldiers" show up in this work, moving the plot along. And there is a plot, unlike some of Mr. Furst's later works! Even so, the main thrust of the work seems to be the moral ambiguities involved in espionage work, and the long-term, and down the road, consequences of even the most trivial decision. The book gives an interesting theory about the early relationship between Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany, one I'd never come across before, and I found it fascinating. As always, the characters, even the mere walk-ons, are finely drawn and quite believeable. It's a moody book, but those were moody, if exciting, times. I look forward to many more works of this type from Mr. Furst.

Second in Alan Furst's sequence of espionage novels set in late 1930's and early 1940's Europe, "Dark Star" focuses upon the experiences of Andre Szara, a Soviet journalist of Polish-Jewish origins and a reluctant spy for the NKVD. Szara's byzantine path takes him through the mutual horrors of Hitler's Germany and of the Stalinist underground. Furst's hero is certainly no ideologue, just a decent man caught up in forces stronger than he is, a man trying to find a way to survive and, when possible, to do a little good. The espionage tradecraft depicted is highly authentic, certainly fully as much as anything from John leCarre. "Dark Star" is a fully absorbing novel, painting a thoroughly convincing portrait of a past era.

Furst has a fluid, evocative style, and right from the start you're submerged into the dark paranoia of a pre-WWII Russian. This isn't airport fiction and it isn't a "mood piece." it's the careful and fascinating unraveling of a mystery surrounding Josef Stalin's past, as well as a tale of a man trying to evade his fate. Some of the sections (the description of the lost soldier's bag and its contents, the escape across the Polish countryside after Sep 1 1939) are the best of their kind. Along with Deighton's "Funeral in Berlin" and Le Carre's "Spy who Came in from the Cold" it is one of the finest spy novels I've read.

I had read "The Polish Officer" first and wanted more of Alan Furst's evocative pre WWII novels of espionage. "Dark Star" surpasses the later novel, it simply hits on all cylinders. Historically accurate, with a twisting plot, vivid characters, and settings that make the reader feel the darkness and gloom enveloping Europe on the eve of WWII. This novel goes beyond the genre of espionage and paints a differently humane approach to the times. The main character, Andre Szara, while heroic, is "everyman" in that he fears, struggles and fails and succeeds and gets lucky at times. Truly the opposite of the Tom Clancy, James bondish type spy, Alan Furst offers us a hero who we can understand without suspending our disbelief. "Dark Star" is a wonderful piece of work by an author who amazes with his breadth of knowledge on Central Europe in the 30's