- Hardcover: 288 pages
- Publisher: W&N; First Edition edition (10 July 2008)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0297855417
- ISBN-13: 978-0297855415
- Product Dimensions: 23 x 16 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 120,872 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Spies Of Warsaw
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Product Description
Review
'[Furst's] stories combine keen deductive precision with much deeper, more turbulent and impassioned aspects of character... Mr. Furst... is an incomparable expert at this game.' (NEW YORK TIMES )
'Alan Furst's spy fiction is serious, even solemn: a good but never light read.' (Jessica Mann LITERARY REVIEW )
'Furst's tales... are infused with the melancholy romanticism of Casablanca, and also a touch of Arthur Koestler's Darkness at Noon.' (THE SCOTSMAN )
'Furst's latest excellent spy thriller... so elegant and genteel - beautfully written... your heart will be pounding with tension.' (THE GUARDIAN )
'Throughout, the author's delight in the process of espionage shines through' (TLS )
'Furst's uncanny gift for place and period lift his city, and its dubious cast of characters, well above the espionage norm.' (Boyd Tonkin THE INDEPENDENT )
'As ever the atmosphere is charged and the writing elliptic' (DAILY TELEGRAPH )
'Furst's writing is so effortless, it nearly disappears.' (TIME OUT )
'Furst's research is such that one gets the impression that he hasn't just travelled, he has time-travelled.' (James Lovegrove FINANCIAL TIMES )
'alongside... is a love story that is told in such a lyrical fashion that it bcomes enthralling... I would recommend this novel without reservation.' (Vincent Banville IRISH TIMES )
'Furst draws a wonderfully convincing picture of a continent on the verge of destruction.' (Andrew Taylor THE SPECTATOR )
'Alan Furst's spy fiction is serious, even solemn: a good but never light read.' (Jessica Mann LITERARY REVIEW )
'Furst's tales... are infused with the melancholy romanticism of Casablanca, and also a touch of Arthur Koestler's Darkness at Noon.' (THE SCOTSMAN )
'Furst's latest excellent spy thriller... so elegant and genteel - beautfully written... your heart will be pounding with tension.' (THE GUARDIAN )
'Throughout, the author's delight in the process of espionage shines through' (TLS )
'Furst's uncanny gift for place and period lift his city, and its dubious cast of characters, well above the espionage norm.' (Boyd Tonkin THE INDEPENDENT )
'As ever the atmosphere is charged and the writing elliptic' (DAILY TELEGRAPH )
'Furst's writing is so effortless, it nearly disappears.' (TIME OUT )
'Furst's research is such that one gets the impression that he hasn't just travelled, he has time-travelled.' (James Lovegrove FINANCIAL TIMES )
'alongside... is a love story that is told in such a lyrical fashion that it bcomes enthralling... I would recommend this novel without reservation.' (Vincent Banville IRISH TIMES )
'Furst draws a wonderfully convincing picture of a continent on the verge of destruction.' (Andrew Taylor THE SPECTATOR )
Product Description
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 attache from the French embassy. Information will be exchanged for money. So begins The Spies of Warsaw, with war coming to Europe, and French and German operatives locked in a life-and-death struggle on the espionage battlefield. At the French embassy, the new military attache, Colonel Jean-Francois Mercier, a decorated hero of the 1914 war, is drawn in to 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, amidst an extraordinary cast of venal and dangerous characters -- Colonel Anton Vyborg of Polish military intelligence, last seen in Furst's The Polish Officer; the mysterious and sophisticated Doctor 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 Spies of Warsaw is Alan Furst's finest novel to date -- the history is precise, the writing evocative and powerful, more a novel about spies than a spy novel -- exciting, atmospheric, erotic and impossible to put down.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
29 of 30 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I was disappointed by 'Dark Voyage', thought that 'The Foreign Correspondent' was a slight improvement, but am delighted that Alan Furst has re-found his unique style and voice with 'The Spies of Warsaw'.
It's a real return to the high quality of his earlier boooks like 'The World at Night' and 'Dark Star' and their masterly evocations of period and setting - here principally Warsaw in the late 1930s, with the looming menace of Hitler's Germany on one side and Stalin's Russia on the other.
French military attache and intelligence officer Colonel Mercier, a minor aristocrat and wounded veteran of the Great War, is contemplating tendering his resignation, but dutifully plays his part in the diplomatic shadowplays, where the spies are known, but their covers are politely maintained by all, where his Polish hosts are probing for France's intentions when war comes, the Russians make overtures to recruit him, and the competing German agencies are fighting their own internal struggles...
But then one of Mercier's agents makes a mistake, and sets into motion a chain of events that forces Mercier back into the action, as he has the chance to uncover a vital part of Hitler's war plans.
We move between the embassy salons and the backstreets, the gilded restaurants and the brothels, the 5-star hotels and the rented rooms - infused with the author's sweetly melancholic appreciation of a still-graceful Europe sliding into conflict. There's romance too, plus the thumbnail character sketches and internal lives of the protagonists, sparsely but skilfully drawn in Furst's trademark style of hints and highlights - not too much, just outlines that the reader fills in. And of course, the Brasserie Heininger makes a re-appearance...
If you're a Furst addict or have just discovered him, you're in for an enjoyable read.
It's a real return to the high quality of his earlier boooks like 'The World at Night' and 'Dark Star' and their masterly evocations of period and setting - here principally Warsaw in the late 1930s, with the looming menace of Hitler's Germany on one side and Stalin's Russia on the other.
French military attache and intelligence officer Colonel Mercier, a minor aristocrat and wounded veteran of the Great War, is contemplating tendering his resignation, but dutifully plays his part in the diplomatic shadowplays, where the spies are known, but their covers are politely maintained by all, where his Polish hosts are probing for France's intentions when war comes, the Russians make overtures to recruit him, and the competing German agencies are fighting their own internal struggles...
But then one of Mercier's agents makes a mistake, and sets into motion a chain of events that forces Mercier back into the action, as he has the chance to uncover a vital part of Hitler's war plans.
We move between the embassy salons and the backstreets, the gilded restaurants and the brothels, the 5-star hotels and the rented rooms - infused with the author's sweetly melancholic appreciation of a still-graceful Europe sliding into conflict. There's romance too, plus the thumbnail character sketches and internal lives of the protagonists, sparsely but skilfully drawn in Furst's trademark style of hints and highlights - not too much, just outlines that the reader fills in. And of course, the Brasserie Heininger makes a re-appearance...
If you're a Furst addict or have just discovered him, you're in for an enjoyable read.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I was somewhat disappointed with Furst's last book, "The Foreign Correspondent," but this book is more like his former pre-WWII spy novels. The year is 1937, the prospect of another war is looming, and Col. Mercier, a French military attache based in Warsaw, is given the task to discover how, should war break out, the Germans will attack France. Again we meet a cast of spies, civil servants and military officers, many of them world-weary and believing that war is inevitable. As in all his other novels, Furst includes a little romance, the Brasserie Heininger with its bullet-shattered mirror (that happens in his book Night Soldiers), the smoky night clubs, the rustic worker's bars. It's Furst's evocation of this era, the terse conversations, the atmosphere, which makes his books so good.
I didn't give it five stars as I still prefer his earlier novels, like Night Soldiers or The Polish Officer. These books were much longer, much meatier. I can't get enough of Alan Furst! If you are interested in espionage novels, or novels about WWII, Furst is definitely one to read.
I didn't give it five stars as I still prefer his earlier novels, like Night Soldiers or The Polish Officer. These books were much longer, much meatier. I can't get enough of Alan Furst! If you are interested in espionage novels, or novels about WWII, Furst is definitely one to read.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I'm a big fan of Alan Furst's novels but was a little disappointed with 'The Foreign Correspondent'. I enjoyed this one far more. I thought it was very much like a Le Carre story, concerning the life of spies. There is not a great deal of action, but a fair amount of suspense. I thought it a very complete story and we are even told the fate of the two main characters, at the end. Well to a certain point. Which is not always the case with the this authors novels.
At least two characters from his other stories are in this. Colonel Vyborg; and Doctor Lapp. Mentioned in one sentence only, is Captain De Milja of 'The Polish officer' which is my favorite.
The hero, Captain Mercier is a hard man, a decorated veteran of a cavalry engagement, rather like Nicholas Morath in 'Kingdom of Shadows'. He comes to suspect how the Germans will invade France, but convincing those above him proves difficult.
There is romance as always.
At least two characters from his other stories are in this. Colonel Vyborg; and Doctor Lapp. Mentioned in one sentence only, is Captain De Milja of 'The Polish officer' which is my favorite.
The hero, Captain Mercier is a hard man, a decorated veteran of a cavalry engagement, rather like Nicholas Morath in 'Kingdom of Shadows'. He comes to suspect how the Germans will invade France, but convincing those above him proves difficult.
There is romance as always.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
The Spies of Warsaw
It is a fascinating book and well written. With a small knowledge of Poland as my father was Military Attache in Warsaw at the start of the War, it couldn't be more appropriate. Read more
Published 6 months ago by julian turnbull
Excellent piece of work
It reads very well, the portraits are well depicted and the author reflects the pre-WW2 atmosphere very well. All in all I can only recommend reading this book by Alan Furst.
Published 7 months ago by Draco
as complicated as a polka
This is another excellent story of pre war Europe and the Murky world of Espionage. This time the Germans are more fleshed out, even though the story primarily concerns the French... Read more
Published 15 months ago by A. Browne
Excellent story but very poor ending
A very good read but possibly the most downbeat lack lustre ending of any book I have read-extremely disappointing.
Published 20 months ago by C. Simmonds
Alan Furst's Greatest Hits
Hum. There is a sense in which The Spies of Warsaw is a kind of Greatest Hits: characters, places, themes and narrative ideas from the past crop up all the time. Read more
Published on 28 Mar 2010 by John Fletcher
slow and clunking
In the end I enjoyed this book, mostly because I'd finished it. I didn't feel that it was very well written, and it seemed clunky and awkward in style. Read more
Published on 12 Jan 2010 by J. Kelly
Satisfying
As a fan of Robert Wison and John Le Carre I found my first book by Alan Furst thoroughly enjoyable. Read more
Published on 21 Dec 2009 by Dr. David R. Meakin
Adequate old fashioned espionage novel
This is the first Alan Furst book I have read and it was acceptable but I wouldn't get carried away about it and I am not tempted to read any other books by Alan Furst. Read more
Published on 30 Aug 2009 by catsatcastle
Disappointing
Well I don't know who wrote the Guardian review quoted on the book but they must have a very low suspense threshold. Read more
Published on 25 July 2009 by Ceresa
Adequate entertainment
An adequate thriller, like Furst's other books, in which not a great deal happens. The parade of authenticity is rather defeated by mistakes in, for example, Polish and diplomatic... Read more
Published on 30 Jun 2009 by M. Etherton
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