Midnight in Europe; A Novel

New York: Random House, 2014. First Edition [Stated], First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. Anita Karl and Jim Kemp (Map). [12], 251, [11] pages. Map. Signed by author on fep. DJ has 'Signed copy" sticker on front. Alan Furst (born February 20, 1941) is an American author of historical spy novels. Furst has been called "an heir to the tradition of Eric Ambler and Graham Greene," whom he cites along with Joseph Roth and Arthur Koestler as important influences. Most of his novels since 1988 have been set just prior to or during the Second World War and he is noted for his successful evocations of Eastern European peoples and places during the period from 1933 to 1944. While attending general studies courses at Columbia University, he became acquainted with Margaret Mead, for whom he later worked. Before becoming a full-time novelist, Furst worked in advertising and wrote magazine articles, most notably for Esquire, and as a columnist for the International Herald Tribune. Derived from a Kirkus review: Another tense drama of pre-World War II Europe from a master of the period. December 1937. Attorney Cristián Ferrar is a Spaniard working in Paris and New York. Civil war rages in his native country, and he fears deeply that Francisco Franco's fascists-the Nationalists-will win. It is in many ways a proxy war between Hitler and Stalin and a precursor to world war. Spies are everywhere. He portrays Europe with masterful foreboding. On both sides, people disappear at the slightest suspicion of treason. Ferrar wants to help the Republicans before all is lost, but how? Almost no country wants to help them-not the United States, not Britain, not France. What about the Soviet Union? Can Ferrar and his friend de Lyon buy anti-aircraft munitions from the Soviets? No, not officially. Stalin knows he will eventually need them. But perhaps with the right connections, Ferrar can relieve an Odessa warehouse of the needed materiel and sail it successfully to Valencia. . As usual, Furst manages to hold the reader's rapt attention without blood-and-guts action. Furst owns the dark blanket that covers Europe between the two world wars. His latest is a satisfying, thought-provoking read.