The Foreign Correspondent

by Alan Furst

Book Overview

From Alan Furst, whom The New York Times calls "America's preeminent spy novelist," comes an epic story of romantic love, love of country, and love of freedom-the story of a secret war fought in... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1400060192
• ISBN13: 9781400060191
• Release Date: May 2006
• Publisher: Random House (NY)
• Length: 273 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.4" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

furst hasn't slipped with this one

Although I am a Furst fan, I put off reading this because of lukewarm reviews. I finally read it though, and I loved this book as much as any of Furst's books and the reviews now mystify me. The book has the same great, brooding atmosphere, likable characters, moral complexity, and tense, steadily building suspense.

Another atmospheric thriller by Alan Furst

I eagerly await each book by Alan Furst, because I know that he will deliver a solid story, populated by believeable characters, and a sense of impending calamity on the eve of World War II in Europe. This latest book is no exception, and I relished every page of it. Mr. Furst likes to include in his works characters and places from his other books, and it's always a delight to meet them again. In this book we have a world weary correspondent working for the literary resistance to Italian fascism, his co-conspirators, a beautiful German woman involved in anti-Hitler plots, and all types of assorted spies, policemen, guards, etc.. The plot moves along, taking us closer to the beginning of the war, but ending before that date. Reading this book will keep you up late into the night to finish it!

Furst at his best

Mini-Review: "The Foreign Correspondent" by Alan Furst My friend, Terry Cowman, has excellent tastes in literature, so when he told me a few years ago that he was surprised that I had not already become a fan of Alan Furst, I was intrigued, and eager to find out what I had been missing. So, I quickly read a couple of his novels, and was hooked! I was thrilled to learn that he has just publish a new work entitled: "The Foreign Correspondent." Not that Terry Cowman's opinion needed any ratification, but I have been interested in the reaction of people when they notice me reading a Furst novel. Boston is a peculiar city in terms of literary tastes and practices. I observe more people reading in public in Boston than in most American cities - equivalent to what I have observed in London and Moscow. It is not uncommon, in my experience, to have someone on the T or in a coffee shop, look to see what work I am reading, and then either to smile knowingly, offer a "thumbs up "of approval, or make a verbal comment about the book or the author. Just yesterday at Copley Place Mall, a woman saw that I was reading Furst, stopped in her tracks and said with a grin: "He's a great writer, isn't he!" The New York Times calls Furst "America's preeminent spy novelist," and in my view, he comfortably takes his place in the pantheon occupied by Jean Le Carre, Charles McCarry and precious few others. He transcends the genre of "spy novelist" by touching on romance, history and mystery. This novel is a celebration of the WWII literary resistance fighters - émigrés from Italy who used Paris as a base of operations to chip away at the power of Mussolini and Hitler. The action centers on the attempts by a motley crew of Italians, led by Reuter's correspondent, Carlo Weisz, to publish an underground newspaper, Liberazione. The paper is sporadically written in Paris and smuggled to Genoa for printing and sub rosa distribution in dribs and drabs throughout Italy. Each page evoked for me what must have been the sights, smells, sounds and survival tactics in a Paris that awaited the inevitable first volleys of WWII as the leaders of Europe danced their deadly dance of diplomacy, deception, double-dealing and duplicity. The following passage both captures the life that Weisz led in Paris and also reflects all of the characteristics that I like and admire in Furst's writing style: "He shed his clothes, down to his shorts and undershirt, hunted through his jacket until he found his glasses, and sat down at the Olivetti. The opening volley sounded loud to Weisz, but he ignored it - the other tenants never seemed to mind the late-night tapping of a typewriter. Of, if they did, they never said anything about it. Typing late at night had near saintly status in the city of Paris - who knew what wondrous flights of imagination might be in progress - and people liked the idea of an inspired soul, pounding away after a midnight visit from the muse." (Page 126) After finishing this

A Pleasurable Genre Novel-Rich in Atmosphere and Details

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.

You don't have to feel guilty reading this literary thriller!

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!