book data
320 ratings,
3.61
average rating, 102 reviews
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published
June 3rd 2008
by Random House
binding
Hardcover, 256 pages
characters
isbn
1400066026
(isbn13: 9781400066025)
description
Set in Warsaw, Selsia, and Paris, Furst's stunning, action-packed new thriller combines espionage with deadly romance, all happening during the rearin...more
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avg 3.61
editions: all | this edition
editions: all | this edition
Read in May, 2008
recommended to Nancy-jo by:
I have read all 9 of Furst's books
This is not a spy novel, but a novel of espionage and the politics of war, or in this instance, of preparation for war. Mercier is a military attache assigned to Warsaw; he collects information from the Poles and the Germans and from an insignificant seeming German engineer who has access to military plans. There is a rich cast of characters, and awonderful detailing of daily life, politics, and the lead-up to war in Warsaw and Paris. Some of the individuals are real and others are fictional....more
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Read in June, 2008
Alan Furst is a genre master, historical spy novels set in the 30s and early 40s, whose sense of history comes from Tolstoy and understanding of the scale of human drama comes from the short stories of Chekov and Joyce. Furst’s novels are compact. The action occurs on the margins of great events. They have the ring of truth in their every detail, whether it’s a period detail or the details of how real events play out with small climaxes and anti-climaxes. The tales remain satisfying because ...more
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This book turned up on my GoodReads list a couple of weeks ago.
What started as a snack turned into a meal and then into a banquet. I am now working on my seventh Furst book a la Kindle.
If Le Carre approaches the point of departure where "spy thriller" become serious literatire, Furst easlily transcends it.
His heroes are all Liberals. In the classic sense of the term. They hate Hitler and Stalin equally. I am down with every one of them.
Furst pr...more
What started as a snack turned into a meal and then into a banquet. I am now working on my seventh Furst book a la Kindle.
If Le Carre approaches the point of departure where "spy thriller" become serious literatire, Furst easlily transcends it.
His heroes are all Liberals. In the classic sense of the term. They hate Hitler and Stalin equally. I am down with every one of them.
Furst pr...more
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1 comment
Read in September, 2008
A little less dense in texture than his many other books on espionage in Europe in the days leading up to WWII, this is still Alan Furst in command of his turf and his story. In this case the focus is on Warsaw in late 1937 and early 1938, before it has been devastated by the German invasion that sets off WWII, mostly seen through the eyes of Colonel Jean Francois Mercier, a decorated and wounded veteran of WWI, and the French military in Warsaw.
Mercier, in his capacity as military ...more
Mercier, in his capacity as military ...more
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Read in July, 2008
Alan Furst is one of the best writers of spy novels going. I wouldn’t rank this one among his best, but it was very good. Like all of Furst’s books, it derives poignancy from the hindsight that, despite the best efforts of the protagonist, interwar Europe was doomed.
The protagonist, Colonel Mercier (the French military attachė in Poland) is running a spy within the German armaments industry, hoping to learn what Germany’s war plans are in regard to France. Everything is based...more
The protagonist, Colonel Mercier (the French military attachė in Poland) is running a spy within the German armaments industry, hoping to learn what Germany’s war plans are in regard to France. Everything is based...more
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Read in June, 2008
I am a great fan of Alan Furst. He has written 10 novels about World War II, primarily espionage or other secret activities. I have devoured all 10. This novel is the most recent of the those, more or less hot off the presses.
What I like about Furst's novels is that he puts me in a time and place with memorable effect. When I finished "The Spies of Warsaw" I felt as if I'd been living in Warsaw in the late '30s. A map of the city is even included. I enjoyed referring to it...more
What I like about Furst's novels is that he puts me in a time and place with memorable effect. When I finished "The Spies of Warsaw" I felt as if I'd been living in Warsaw in the late '30s. A map of the city is even included. I enjoyed referring to it...more
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Read in February, 2009
This isn't a bad book, but I ultimately found it very frustrating. The main character is a French diplomat and spy working in Warsaw in 1938. He knows very well that the Germans will invade soon and that Poland will stand alone against them. But he spends most of his time (and the book) going to cocktail parties and trying to get a girlfriend. This is probably an accurate representation of how people do deal with impending doom, but still, I couldn't help but wish he seemed a little more con...more
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There are a number of reasons why this mediocre spy book (I hesitate to call it a novel, as that implies something undeserved in the way of characterization, plot development, aesthetic sense, or relation to reality) over-irked me, but I’ll spare you all but the biggest: we have here a Warsaw of the late 1930s which, remarkably, is populated solely by war-hating-yet-honorable aristocrats and shabby-yet-dignified proles who all despise Hitler, harbor no anti-Semitism, and (even correcting for t...more
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Read in July, 2008
This was my first Furst novel, but it probably won't be my last. I enjoyed the characterization of Mercier, the military attache (spy) who conducts surveillance for the French in Poland prior to WWII. He was neither too "gung-ho" nor too jaded, which I found appealing in a protagonist. The novel is actually four intertwined episodes, each with its own crisis and resolution, which I had not expected, but was pleased with at the end. Overall, a satisfying read.
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02/05/09
Bookmarks Magazine
added it
With The Spies of Warsaw, Furst continues to assert himself as the contemporary master of historical espionage. Although he has condensed his vision in recent efforts, Furst's latest combines a relentless verisimilitude with intricate plotting and well-drawn characters. That attention to character, however, was a double-edged sword for critics: too much character development, and the plot suffers; too many plot twists, and the characters become cardboard cutouts. By creating atmospheric, complex
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Read in January, 2009
This was one of my middle of the night books, but turned out to be so compelling that I stayed up until 2 last night reading it. When the exterminator came early this am, I was struggling to drink coffee and wake up.(On that subject, no evidence of critters actually inside.) I love these WWII spy stories, so much more interesting than the crazed religious terrorists of today. Furst is actually a good writer, no heaving bosums, no gratutitous violence, but enough suspense to keep you turning th...more
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Read in June, 2009
The cover and title caught my eye as I browsed through the airport bookstore - in a hurry I didn't really take the time to check it out in good order. The Spies of Warsaw was okay - interesting to read about the climate and intrigue of the days leading up to World War II. The romantic encounters of Colonel Jean-Francois Mercier took up a little too much space for me - I would rather have have delved more into the espionage angle. In the end it felt more like a day in the life of ... with ever...more
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Read in October, 2008
The story shifts from France to Poland and to Germany in 1937 and 1938 as Col. Jean-François Mercier, a military attaché at the French embassy in Warsaw, goes about his task of finding out all he can about German military intentions in general and how they relate to France in particular.
While Col. Jean-François Mercier plays the diplomatic game meeting with Warsaw society and his counterparts from other nations, his sense of foreboding increases. Purloined blueprints lead him to b...more
While Col. Jean-François Mercier plays the diplomatic game meeting with Warsaw society and his counterparts from other nations, his sense of foreboding increases. Purloined blueprints lead him to b...more
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Read in September, 2008
I received 'Night Soldiers' when I was first in Publishing. the company I worked for, St. Martin's Press, was about to release the mass market paperback. I devoured the book in one sitting and have been hooked on Furst's work ever since.
This new novel is up there with the best of them. Another reviewer said that each of his books are the same, and he wouldn't have it any other way. I think that is partly true, as they all deal with characters caught in the seemingly unstoppable run-...more
This new novel is up there with the best of them. Another reviewer said that each of his books are the same, and he wouldn't have it any other way. I think that is partly true, as they all deal with characters caught in the seemingly unstoppable run-...more
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Read in September, 2008
The Spies of Warsaw is a low-key finely crafted novel of espionage. Set in Warsaw and Paris, the story takes place from mid 1937 to early 1938. War was looming, and Poland was to be the first major battleground.
In this story, Jean-Francoise Mercier de Boutillion is the French military attache at the French embassy in Warsaw. He is a veteran of the previous war, and has the rank of Colonel. With relatively little training he has been assigned the role of spymaster, recruiting and runn...more
In this story, Jean-Francoise Mercier de Boutillion is the French military attache at the French embassy in Warsaw. He is a veteran of the previous war, and has the rank of Colonel. With relatively little training he has been assigned the role of spymaster, recruiting and runn...more
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Read in January, 2009
A great highly descriptive novel about the late 1930's in Warsaw, while Poland is at the brink of WWII. The novel does not have a strong plot or a mystery that needs to be solved, it is a highly believable, richly textured and generously described chunk of life. The book covers people of different economic backgrounds, but focuses in on the glamorous and the aristocratic. There is lots of details about food and dress, and lots of delicious descriptiveness about Paris... m-mmmmmmmmm.... Paris
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Read in August, 2008
"In the dying light of an autumn day in 1937, a certain Herr Edvrd Uhl, a secret agent, descended from a first-class railway carriage in the city of Warsaw." With this opening sentence, Furst drops you into a world of glamour and intrigue, with the spectre of Nazism and Hitler's fanatic followers looming as dark and cold as a winter in Poland. I am now thoroughly hooked on Furst and his talents as a writer of historical espionage. His details are pitch perfect, his research laudable. H...more
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Read in April, 2009
I love most of Alan Furst's books. But this one is a real disappointment.
To me, Alan Furst's books are the antidote for silly novels in which smart people do stupid things, in which big puzzles are solved by serendipitous discoveries, in which people tell important secrets to people they've just met.
In this book, Furst joins the club of the authors of those silly spy novels. Women jump into the protagonist's bed. The protagonist gets rescued by his driver who just h...more
To me, Alan Furst's books are the antidote for silly novels in which smart people do stupid things, in which big puzzles are solved by serendipitous discoveries, in which people tell important secrets to people they've just met.
In this book, Furst joins the club of the authors of those silly spy novels. Women jump into the protagonist's bed. The protagonist gets rescued by his driver who just h...more
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Read in November, 2008
A good friend of mine loves all of Furst's books, and claims that this is his best one yet. I had not read any of his work before, and was unfortunately, quite disappointed.
This book tailors to a very select group of readers who are: History buffs, Francophiles, and keen on inferring what is not there.
Unfortunately to me, it most often seemed as if it was large chunks of cryptic, dry, historical data, tacked together with bits of gossipy innuendo.
This book tailors to a very select group of readers who are: History buffs, Francophiles, and keen on inferring what is not there.
Unfortunately to me, it most often seemed as if it was large chunks of cryptic, dry, historical data, tacked together with bits of gossipy innuendo.
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Read in October, 2008
I've been in a reading rut lately, so I decided to try something new. This is a book written by supposedly the best spy author ever - Alan Furst - and I've never read a spy novel, so I was intrigued by that introduction.
This particular book was about a French spy who lived and worked in Warsaw, Poland, and had the charge of spying on pre-WWII Germany and Hitler's intentions leading into what we all know now as WWII. The book was fiction, but most definitely had some key historical ...more
This particular book was about a French spy who lived and worked in Warsaw, Poland, and had the charge of spying on pre-WWII Germany and Hitler's intentions leading into what we all know now as WWII. The book was fiction, but most definitely had some key historical ...more
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Vote for a June Book! The Category is Travel. Thank you for voting!
The Madonnas of Leningrad A Novel by Debra Dean
The Good Thief's Guide to Amsterdam by Chris Ewan
In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson
Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell
Honeymoon with My Brother A Memoir by Franz Wisner
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
The Spies of Warsaw by Alan Furst
Sand in My Bra and Other Misadventures Funny Women Write from the Road Edited by Jennifer L. Leo
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
Without Reservations The Travels of an Independent Woman by Alice Steinbach
The Innocents Abroad/Roughing It by Mark Twain
Winter in Madrid by C.J. Samson
In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin
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