The Foreign Correspondent: A Novel (Kindle Edition)

by Alan Furst (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Furst's reputation as one of today's best writers, in any genre, is further solidified by this gripping historical thriller with echoes of Graham Greene, which opens in Paris in December 1938. Journalist Carlo Weisz, an expatriate Italian who's half Slav, is fighting the Mussolini regime by writing for the Paris-based underground opposition newspaper, the Liberazione. When agents of the OVRA, the Italian secret police, murder the Liberazione's editor in the arms of his mistress, Weisz assumes greater responsibility for keeping the paper running. OVRA also targets Weisz and his surviving colleagues, forcing him to scramble to stay alive while continuing his subversive work. Furst (Night Soldiers) excels at characterization, making even secondary figures such as shadowy presences from British intelligence and Nazi minders more than cartoon stereotypes. Through the exploits of his understated hero, Furst presents a potent portrait of Europe on the eve of WWII. (June)
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From Bookmarks Magazine
Critics seem remorseful about handing Alan Furst less-than-glowing reviews. Widely acknowledged as a modern master of the spy thriller (he's often named alongside John le Carré and Graham Greene) and a masterful prose stylist, Furst leapt onto the scene with Night Soldiers and has since delivered acclaimed best sellers like Blood of Victory and Dark Star. Some reviewers happily embrace Furst's well-researched, atmospheric espionage, but a small minority grouses that, for all the lovely Parisian scenery and international intrigue, the story of an embattled journalist just isn't compelling. It's anything but a run-of-the-mill spy story, but without the palpable adventure of his earlier books, it's just ordinary for Furst.

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

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Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 379 KB
• Print Length: 288 pages
• Publisher: Random House (May 30, 2006)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English
• ASIN: B000GCFW00
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (68 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #5,530 in Kindle Store (See Bestsellers in Kindle Store)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

48 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Pleasurable Genre Novel-Rich in Atmosphere and Details, June 8, 2006

By	Marco Antonio Abarca (Colorado) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Foreign Correspondent: A Novel (Hardcover)

It is December 1938 and a small group of Italian exiles meet in the back room of the Cafe Europa in Paris. The editor of their underground newspaper Liberazione has just been assasinated by the Italian secret police and they need to find a new editor. They choose Carlo Weisz, a foreign correspondent for the Rueters News Agency. The novel that follows is Carlo Weisz battle to keep the anti-fascist Liberazione alive and publishing. To do this, he must enter the shadowy world of French, British and Italian spies.

There are very few authors who can legitimately say they dominate a genre of literature. In the same way that John Le Carre owns the Cold War spy novel or Louis L'Amour the Western, Alan Furst is the great stylist of the 1930's spy novel. Furst is not interested in the high end spy but rather the every day working spy. In classic Furst style, "The Foreign Correspondent" takes the reader to battlefields of Spain, French internment camps, Genoese dockyards and to Paris' working class neighborhoods. Because Furst writes only about this period, he is able to fill his novels with the gritty details that make his stories believable.

So how does "The Foreign Correspondent" fall within the body of Furst's work. It is somewhere in the middle. It is not his best nor his worst novel. I like the world Alan Furst creates and even one of his average novels gives me great pleasure. For those who like Furst's novels, check out the works of Eric Ambler, the first master of this genre.

40 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good read for summer days or winter nights, June 11, 2006

By	Leonard Fleisig "Len" (Washington, D.C.) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Foreign Correspondent: A Novel (Hardcover)

A friend of mine in London recently asked for a suggestion about a good book to read on the night train from Munich to Prague. I immediately recommended Alan Furst's King of Shadows, which opens on the night train from Budapest to Paris. An Alan Furst novel is often the answer to a request for a `good read'. His latest, "Foreign Correspondent", is no exception

Furst comes from a line of writers that can be traced back to both Graham Greene and Eric Ambler. Like Ambler, Furst often takes an unassuming, or unwitting civilian and immerses him in a world of mystery and intrigue in pre and post-World War II Europe. Foreign Correspondent opens in Civil War Spain but quickly moves to pre-war Paris. Italian journalist Carlo Weisz, a refugee from Mussolini's fascist Italy living in Paris, is part of a group of Italian expatriates who print a dissident newspaper, Liberazione, and smuggle it into Italy. The Italian secret police, the OVRA, has infiltrated the group. One of its members has been murdered and each member of the group is feeling the effects of the OVRA turning the screws on their operations. At the same time Weisz' day job as a foreign correspondent for Reuters takes him back and forth to the Berlin of Hitler, Himmler, and Goring. It is in Berlin that Weisz reunites with and reignites his affair with Christa von Schirren. Along the way Weisz comes to the attention of and is recruited by British Intelligence. The plot outline is simple: will Weisz and his cell continue to publish Liberazione and will Weisz be able to get Christa out of Berlin before the war that everyone knows is coming closes all borders.

Furst's strong point has always been how he sets the scene. His atmospherics are tremendous. His descriptions of the streets of Berlin or Paris or Barcelona and the atmosphere of those cities reek of authenticity. Similarly, Furst has a keen eye for the inner life of his protagonists. Almost invariably Furst manages to convey a real sense of how those protagonists think and feel. Both of these elements of his writing generally dominate his plotting and are primarily responsible for getting the reader to turn to the next page. This is certainly the case with Foreign Correspondent. The plot itself is not complex and it did not leave me wondering what was going to happen next. Similarly, the book did not really build to a real climax. The book ended more with a sigh than with a bang. Some may find that a bit disappointing. However, as readers of Furst's books already know his novels strive for authenticity. In much of life, particularly in the era Furst writes about, storybook endings or dramatic endings are more the exception than the rule. However, despite being aware of this I think the ending was more than a bit anti-climactic and more so than in some of his other novels.

All in all, and as the title of the review suggests, despite some weakness in plotting (in my opinion) Foreign Correspondent will make for a satisfying read for a long, lazy summer day or a freezing winter night.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You don't have to feel guilty reading this literary thriller!, June 4, 2006

By	Colby Jordan "College Student" (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Foreign Correspondent: A Novel (Hardcover)

I picked this up for my dad for Father's Day as he is a big Fan of Furst's writing, but started reading the fist chapter--just to check it out--and was unable to stop reading. Finished it in two days, and this is not a breezy read! The setting is 1939 Paris and foreign correspondent Carlo Weisz goes to work as an editor for an underground journal reacting against the fascist regime in Italy. The plot is simple as it revolves around his attempts to enlist help in the cause, his arrest and eventual escape; but the real pleasure here is not so much the twist and turns of the plot but the shadowy underworld that Furst creates, peopled with just as shadowy-and sometimes menacing-characters. The tension in this thriller comes from unknown sources, the reality of what "IS", the undisclosed, not from one evil source. In the end it is about not succumbing to the way things are but taking steps towards change, no matter how small they may be. This is a beautifully written book that should be on everyone's reading list!