Midnight in Europe - Hardcover

Furst, Alan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0297863959 ISBN 13: 9780297863953

Publisher: W&N, 2014

Synopsis

Paris, 1938. A shadow edges over Europe. Democratic forces are locked in struggle, while in Spain the war has already begun.

Cristián Ferrar, a handsome Spanish lawyer in Paris, is a well-connected man. Ferrar is approached to help a clandestine agency supply weapons to beleaguered Republican forces and agrees, putting his life on the line.

Joining Ferrar in his mission is an unlikely group of allies: idealists and gangsters, arms traders and aristocrats, including Max de Lyon, a man hunted by the Gestapo, and the Marquesa Maria Cristina, a refined beauty with a taste for danger.

From libertine nightclubs in the City of Light to volatile bars by the docks in Gdansk, Furst paints a spell-binding portrait of a continent marching into a nightmare - and the heroes and heroines who fought back.

About this title

Review:

Alan Furst's novels have invoked glowing comparisons with Graham Greene for his idiosyncratic recreations of 1930s Europe; Midnight in Europe shows that there is not the slightest diminution in his masterly command (Barry Forshaw FINANCIAL TIMES)

Furst's novels of WWII and the years immediately before it are becoming something of a genre of their own - a richly enjoyable mix of spy adventures, love stories, thrillers and social histories... the real pleasure comes in simply spending time with Furst's gallery of plausible villains and unlikely heroes (THE MAIL ON SUNDAY)

Alan Furst's gripping novel is driven by his deceptively straightforward style, which gently piles everyday detail on detail building up little by little until the reader becomes enmeshed in a complex web of international intrigue and machinations right to the very end (Amy Myers SHOTS)

Since the publication of Night Soldiers in 1988, Alan Furst has established himself as a uniquely appealing writer of espionage fiction, attracting not only those who know the genre, but also those who hold more literary sensibilities. Like Le Carre, he imbues his thrillers with a compelling air of reality that convinces the reader of their authenticity... The main reason to read Furst, however, is his pitch-perfect period detail. The author evokes time and place with effortless ease... Furst is one of the greatest practitioners of the spy thriller working today. If you've read him before, you'll already have bought the book. If not, you're about to discover a real pleasure (Russel McLean THE HERALD (GLASGOW))

Furst deftly creates a chiaroscuro world, a chessboard Europe half glimpsed through shadow and fog and dominated by the looming threat of fascism. The sombre tone is offset by Furst's delightfully improbably cast of characters, which includes down-at-heel aristocrats, mercenary arms dealers, femmes fatales and star-crossed lovers. Ferrer, our amateur spy is a wonderful creation an idealistic but hopelessly native innocent abroad who understands all to well that he is a very small cog in a vast machine grinding inexorably towards a conflict that will dwarf even the horrors of the Spanish Civil War (Declan Burke THE IRISH TIMES)

Alan Furst's Midnight in Europe unfolds in 1938, during the Spanish Civil war. Cristian, a Spanish lawyer working in Paris, agrees to assist the Republic's arms-buying agency there, and hence meets a cosmopolitan assortment of ambiguous heroes and colourful rogues... Furst devotees will devour it eagerly (John Dugdale THE SUNDAY TIMES)

This is another fine addition to his elegant, gripping, interwoven set of novels... Furst tells gallopingly good stories, and Midnight in Europe is one of them (THE SCOTSMAN)

As ever, the setting is thoroughly convincing, the detail impressive, and the atmosphere of doomed romance intoxicating. His writing is sophisticated, nuanced, and surprisingly funny in places, without ever being flashy. Furst is too skilled the storyteller to ever break the spell he casts over the reader for the sake of a clever phrase. No doubt Midnight in Europe will sell by the bucket load, and that's just fine with me (www.crimefictionlover.com)

Featuring some colourful characters, including idealists, gangsters and aristocrats and involving Ferrar in trips to New York, Berlin, Poland, Romania, Istanbul and Odessa, the novel is well paced and captures the mood of the times (CHOICE)

Highly exciting...full of suspense... This novel will keep the new reader engrossed to the very end (CRIME REVIEW)

Book Description:

Alan Furst ('America's pre-eminent spy novelist' NEW YORK TIMES; 'in a class of his own' William Boyd) returns with a thrilling new novel set during the tense build-up to World War II

About this edition

• Publisher: W&N
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0297863959
• ISBN 13: 9780297863953
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320