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Dark Star

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( 6,261 ratings, 459 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
In Dark Star by Alan Furst, the narrative unfolds in the late 1930s, amidst the rise of Nazism and Stalinism. The story follows Andre Szara, a Soviet journalist turned reluctant spy, as he navigates the complexities of espionage across Europe. With tensions mounting, Szara must outwit both foreign and domestic threats, experiencing the ominous tension of a continent on the brink of war.
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Format: Paperback / softback
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This book may appeal to you if you're enthralled by espionage tales set against the backdrop of pre-World War II Europe. Alan Furst weaves a compelling narrative filled with intrigue, suspense, and richly detailed historical settings that will transport you to a time of intense political and personal stakes.

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'Outclasses any spy novel I have ever read' Richard Condon, author of THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE

Reissued in the terrific new cover style THE FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT sold over 35,000 copies Alan Furst receives exceptional reviews: 'A rich, deeply moving novel of suspense that is equal parts espionage thriller, European history, and love story. The time frame was once the special property of Eric Ambler and Graham Greene; Furst has ventured into their fictional territory and brought out a story that is equally original and engaging' New York Times 'For connoisseurs of wartime thrillers, a new novel by Alan Furst has become a major publishing event' Sunday Telegraph 'The sophistication of Robert Harris or Sebastian Faulks with the undisguised boyish envy of Ian Fleming' Sunday Times 'Competitors despair. Alan Furst's mastery of the espionage novel put him beyond any would-be rival... No one does it better than Furst' Literary Review 'A gripping plot and a galaxy of well-drawn characters' Daily Telegraph 'Addictive, beautifully humane novels' Guardian 'Furst is a consummate writer, his style lyrical and elegant, his story-telling taut and suspenseful, his characters authentic' Irish Examiner 'Pleasurable and rewarding to read' Spectator

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

Andre Szara, survivor of the Polish pogroms and the Russian civil wars, is a journalist working for Pravda in 1937. War in Europe is already underway, and Szara is co-opted to join the NKVD, the Soviet secret intelligence agency. He does his best to survive the tango of pre-war politics by calmly obeying orders and keeping his nose clean. But when he is sent to retrieve a battered briefcase, the plot thickens, and he is drawn into even more complex intrigues.

Szara becomes a full-time spymaster, and as deputy director of a Paris network, he finds his own star rising when he recruits an agent in Berlin who can supply crucial information.

Dark Star captures not only the intrigue and danger of clandestine life but the day-to-day reality of what Soviet operatives call special work.

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Alan Furst's Dark Star is regarded as a serious and immersive spy fiction novel, praised for its keen deductive precision and depth of character. Critics appreciate Furst's expertise in the genre, noting his ability to capture the turbulent emotions involved in espionage. The book is considered a significant release for fans of wartime thrillers, highlighting the author's passion for the intricate world of spying.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780753826348

Publisher: Orion Publishing Co

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 30 April 2009

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Weidenfeld & Nicolson

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 26.0mm

Width: 132.0mm

Height: 197.0mm

Weight: 292g

Pages: 400

About the Author

Alan Furst has lived for long periods in France, especially in Paris, and has travelled as a journalist in Eastern Europe and Russia. He has written extensively for Esquire and the International Herald Tribune.

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