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A review by jacki_f
Dark Star by Alan Furst
3.0
Alan Furst has written fourteen books set in Europe in the 1930s and 1940s. They form the "Night Soldiers" series and they are loosely inter-connected but all are also standalone novels in their own right. With only a couple of exceptions, they can be read in any order. This is the second book in the series and it centres on Andre Szara, a Polish/Russian Jew who as the book opens in 1937 is a foreign correspondent for Pravda. He is used to doing small favours for the Soviet Secret Intelligence Service nut eventually this will become a full time role for him as he is assigned to manage a small team in Paris. The story takes us across Europe: from Paris to Poland, from Budapest to Berlin, from Belgium to Estonia.
I love how rich these books are. Even the smallest walk on characters who only appear for a page or two are vividly brought to life. It's a very cinematic way of writing: you zoom in, pan out, change scene. The disadvantage however is that the narrative thread can get a bit lost and in this book I found that happening more than some of the others that I've read. The politics of Russia at that time are complicated and I frequently found myself having to reread sections to make sense of them. I did admire however the way the story is brought together and the disparate threads are integrated. While ultimately this isn't my favourite in the series, I still enjoyed it. There is a particularly powerful section set in Poland as the Nazis invade which in itself is worth the price of admission.
I love how rich these books are. Even the smallest walk on characters who only appear for a page or two are vividly brought to life. It's a very cinematic way of writing: you zoom in, pan out, change scene. The disadvantage however is that the narrative thread can get a bit lost and in this book I found that happening more than some of the others that I've read. The politics of Russia at that time are complicated and I frequently found myself having to reread sections to make sense of them. I did admire however the way the story is brought together and the disparate threads are integrated. While ultimately this isn't my favourite in the series, I still enjoyed it. There is a particularly powerful section set in Poland as the Nazis invade which in itself is worth the price of admission.