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Product Description
Review
a tense and evocative spy thriller...brings a period of history vividly to life (ILFORD RECORDER )
Book Description
From the master of the historical spy thriller, a story set in the heart of the Polish resistance
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
32 of 33 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Having read "Night Soldiers" and "Dark Star" I leapt upon this novel with a huge amount of anticipation. Usually whenever I do this I am let down in some way, but Mr Furst has that most sought after of qualities in an author: consistency.
The Polish Officer in question is a wonderfully understated character, merely trying to do what's best in a more-than-uncertain world. With his loyalties lying with "a country with a bully for a neighbour" he seeks out the best underground way possible to continue fighting for it, be it against the Russian NKVD or the German Gestapo. We are taken along for the ride across a war-torn Europe, wondering much as he does as to when he is going to be killed, rather than if. He survives long enough for us to empathise with him and his situation. He is like we would be; ordinary but using it to his advantage. He underlines the fact that a James Bond in his situation would be merely a name on a headstone.
The Polish Officer in question is a wonderfully understated character, merely trying to do what's best in a more-than-uncertain world. With his loyalties lying with "a country with a bully for a neighbour" he seeks out the best underground way possible to continue fighting for it, be it against the Russian NKVD or the German Gestapo. We are taken along for the ride across a war-torn Europe, wondering much as he does as to when he is going to be killed, rather than if. He survives long enough for us to empathise with him and his situation. He is like we would be; ordinary but using it to his advantage. He underlines the fact that a James Bond in his situation would be merely a name on a headstone.
This is an excellent spy novel. This is an excellent war-story. But above all it is an excellent tale from an excellent author
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is my favorite of Alan Furst's books because of the main character and it is one complete story. Some of his books are rather episodic.
'Captain de Milja was a soldier, he knew he didn't have long to live. And, in truth, he didn't care. He was not in love with life. One or two things had to be taken care of, then matters could run their course'.
'De Milja looked to be in his thirties, but there was something about him, some air of authority, that was much older than that ... His face was delicate, arrogant, hard ... in any event, he was a very serious man.'
Like a lot of the author's characters, they seem doomed but do survive or at least, are alive at the end of the book and sometimes make a brief appearance in some of his other books, especially as in 'The Foreign Correspondant'. It would be good to encounter Captain De Milja again.
'Captain de Milja was a soldier, he knew he didn't have long to live. And, in truth, he didn't care. He was not in love with life. One or two things had to be taken care of, then matters could run their course'.
'De Milja looked to be in his thirties, but there was something about him, some air of authority, that was much older than that ... His face was delicate, arrogant, hard ... in any event, he was a very serious man.'
Like a lot of the author's characters, they seem doomed but do survive or at least, are alive at the end of the book and sometimes make a brief appearance in some of his other books, especially as in 'The Foreign Correspondant'. It would be good to encounter Captain De Milja again.
28 of 29 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is the first novel I've read by Alan Furst, and I was pleased to find that the golden opinions which Furst has been winning (comparisons with Le Carre, among others) seem to be justified. He writes unobtrusively well, and the period in which the novel is set offers almost too much material for the thriller writer.
For the English or American reader, life in Occupied Europe from the perspective of those who lived there is still an unfamiliar angle from which to view the Second World War, and I found Furst's treatment a refreshing change from the usual Anglocentric perspective. There are no English or American characters of any significance; instead the focus of interest is upon the emigres and displaced persons, the former military officers and bandits who find themselves more or less willingly drawn into an apparently hopeless resistance to the occupying Nazi and Soviet forces in France, Poland, Russia and the Ukraine. It is a small triumph that Furst makes this unfamiliar material compelling to the English reader.
I would add only one caveat; the author's somewhat curious decision to limit his period of interest to that between roughly 1938 and 1941, (broadly, that in which the Axis powers were most clearly in the ascendant) although defensible in dramatic terms, left this reader at the novel's end with a strong feeling that the whole story had not been told. I understand that Alan Furst's other, and now rather numerous, novels are set in the same period, and one wonders how long it will be before he begins to feel constrained by this self-imposed restriction. Certainly the central character of The Polish Officer is strong enough to justify at least one sequel, and perhaps to set the mind at rest.
It is a measure of the author's success that one badly wants to know for certain that his hero survives the war. I will certainly be seeking out this author's other books, though I will be surprised if they are superior.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A Polish patriot in WWII.
This spy thriller chronicles the activities of Alexander de Milja, a captain in the Polish army, during the period immediately after the German invasion of Poland in 1939, to the... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Brian R. Martin
Worth the effort
Alan Furst is not an easy read. He doesn't explain much and the context is often obscure, the content dense. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Jan
Lacking in tension and suspense
Having previously read (and not enjoyed Dark Star) I thought I'd give this one a go as it only cost a £1 from a charity shop. Read more
Published 3 months ago by The Man With 21 Faces
The Polish Officer
Both my husband and I read this on holiday and found it gripping. Alan Furst is a master of suspense and his books are hard to put down so it's a very fast read. Read more
Published 5 months ago by J. Tennant
Highly atmospheric...
Until recently I didn't know of Alan Furst's writing at all, but I'm very pleased to have now discovered it. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Paul Harris
If you like spy stories this is for you.
I looked at this book because of the old cliche - judging a book by its cover but when I read the blurb I was really drawn in. How glad I am that I bought the book. Read more
Published 13 months ago by MK
Always waiting for something EXCITING to happen
A bit disappointing this book. It had no proper beginning to the story and just ended at no particular point either. It could have finished at other points in the 'story ? Read more
Published 14 months ago by Des
The Life of Spy
"The Polish Officer" relates the first two years of the Second World War via the life and activities of the eponymous hero, an officer in the Polish Military Intelligence. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Secret Spi
wartime europe from east to west
This was one of the best Alan Furst Novels I have read. This one is set during the war and the Hero Capt Alexander De Milja. Read more
Published 15 months ago by A. Browne
VERY DISAPPOINTING NOVEL
I found this novel very boring, the characters non-existent., and the whole fabric of the novel very difficult to follow,and there seemed to be no cohesion What had the potential... Read more
Published 16 months ago by bibliophile
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