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The Foreign Correspondent (Night Soldiers, #9)

Alan Furst

Why we're reading this: Excellent read - anybody that likes espionage fiction about WW2 will like this one!
[close] Excellent read - anybody that likes espionage fiction about WW2 will like this one!

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What Members Thought

Jul 09, 2012 Dave rated it liked it

Not bad, but not really satisfying. Spy fiction gives a writer an opportunity to challenge readers' preconceived notions of right and wrong. Many of LeCarre's books do that. Foreign Correspondent does not. Its basic moral premise is that Fascists and Nazis are bad. That was pretty much resolved by the time I was born (and I am old).

Spy fiction also gives an opportunity for action. Aside from a brief passage in the Spanish Civil War, the book's only action has the protagonist hit from behind (the ...more

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Jan 09, 2012 James Schubring rated it liked it

I wanted to love this book, but the adjective I keep coming back to as a descriptor is: bloodless.

There's a lot of ponderousness and little action to fill the pages. How do you take the pre-WWII period of a life among Italian emigres into Frances, people trying to cause Mussolini problems, and render it dull. There's an assassination at the beginning and lots of moments that could be tense. There's Italian secret police and a MacGuffin-like list of Nazi's emplaced into Italy that could be a knoc ...more

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Jan 09, 2010 Wendybird rated it it was ok

Shelves: spy-espionage, fiction

This is the first I've read by this author. Very slow at the start; took a while to understand the main character's role and motivation. Also took a while to become accustomed to the author's style of using so many interrogatives as part of the protaganist's thoughts. The frequent use of foreign phrases followed by their translations was annoyingly pedantic. The scenario of an Italian expatriot assisting pre-WWII anti-fascists from France was interesting, and some good editing could probably hav ...more

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Mar 14, 2011 Elli rated it it was amazing

Shelves: intrigue, world-war-2, historical, espionage, conspiracy, international, political, political-crime

Another great novel from the period Naziism was really establishing itself in spite of the fact that most of the intellectual population really didn't think it could possibly go that far or last that long. In these you become one of the many concerned people, most of them little, but very capable people. Many are emigrants who for one reason or another can probably never go back, and most are quite fond of Paris, the closest second-best to the home they wanted when felt forced to leave. The more ...more

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Apr 13, 2012 Michael Boxall added it

Not quite as gripping as Spies of Warsaw

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Nov 09, 2017 John rated it it was amazing

Shelves: spy

Alan Furst is different from Le Carre but (dare I say it?) in this case a near equal in my view. What great characters and a ripping good story! If you like this genre you must give this one a try.

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