Dark Star

By: Alan Furst

Narrated by: George Guidall

Length: 18 hrs

Publisher's summary

Acclaimed author and historian Alan Furst has written several historical fiction novels, such as Blood of Victory and Kingdom of Shadows. In Dark Star, André Szara is a Polish journalist who becomes a spy for the Soviet Union in the late 1930s. Through Szara’s character, the beginnings of World War II are revealed.

Some of the events Szara sees are harsh and unforgettable. While working in Austria, he sees Hitler and his army march into Vienna and drag Jews into the streets, humiliating and beating them—often to death. Szara turns to drinking to help numb much of his pain as he finds a reliable confidant in Germany who is willing to give him undisclosed information about the war.

Listen to Alan Furst discuss his craft with fellow writers Walter Mosley and Scott Turow at

©1991 Alan Furst (P)2004 Recorded Books

Critic reviews

"Intelligent, provocative, and gripping novel....Beautifully and compellingly told." (Publishers Weekly)
"A rich, deeply moving novel of suspense that is equal parts espionage thriller, European history, and love story." (The New York Times)
"Captures the murky allegiances and moral ambiguity of Europe on the brink of war....Nothing can be like watching Casablanca for the first time. But Furst comes closer than anyone has in years." (Time)

Dark Star Blazes

Alan Furst's second book , with fewer characters and fewer murders than his first, still chills, tantalizes and propels the reader unto the next.

A consistent follow-up from the first book

This series is a bit slow but interesting, and is good to pass the time.

Excellent

Complex history and character development. Well done in every respect. I’m going on to the next in the series right now. Recommend highly to lovers of historical fiction.

Small-sphere spying at its best

My first Furst was a success overall, however I don’t know how many more of them I will read. What? How can that be if I say it was a success? Well, it was more the feeling of the inevitable and the futility of it all that I had while reading. 70 years after World War II it’s tough to really suspend one’s disbelief during a spy story and pretend we don’t know how things turned out. Even though Szara was thoroughly engaging and human, fought on the ‘right’ side of things and went about his task with a grim instinct for his role, I still felt pangs of ‘what is it all for?’.

As a protagonist, Szara was great. His little side jobs for the NKVD became much more than he bargained for, but he handled it with expertise he didn’t know he had. He’s vaguely romantic in the sense that he has fought in wars and is a widower due to those same wars (the fact that his wife was a nurse makes it even more romantic). He’s got a good head on his shoulders and keeps his cool under fire. He’s not idealistic; he’s trying to do the best he can in a situation he can’t control. He’s shrewd but not cruelly manipulative. A good guy in a bad circumstance is the overall impression and I was glad how things ended for him even if it was so different from how most other espionage novels end.

I also liked how the overall plot wasn’t some gigantic, war-changing operation that was so vitally important as to make all other considerations meaningless. Instead it was a very localized operation moved along by relatively junior personnel. Maybe that’s what lent the feeling of futility to the story. This minor sideline wasn’t going to change anything and so the sense of time wasted, lives wasted was pretty strong for me. After all the plotting, betrayal and bloodshed the information was really not as hard to come by as Szara thought and so what good did it all do? That’s the feeling of futility and doom that pervaded for me throughout, but especially at the end when I got a horrible deflated feeling.

I did like the small sphere Furst gave us though. Through his descriptions of bombings, life as a refugee and as ‘burnt’ spy desperate for a new identity and way to safety, I really felt how trapped and hopeless it was for those people caught by it. It was very quotidian and not over the top and thus much more believable. I could easily imagine people going through with and attempting similar things to Szara. Small cogs just trying to get by. It was touching and somehow familiar although I wonder if they still make people who could do what these did. The absolute audacity of the German regime and the utter passivity of the rest of Europe (well, that’s how it came across in this novel anyway) was pretty shocking. I mean, I understand wanting to keep out of someone else’s fight, but what the hell did they think was happening to these people as they were marginalized, shut out and shipped from one place to another? Unthinkable, but it happened.

too complicated for audio (at least for me)?

I enjoyed this book. However, the story, the characters, and the embedded history are sufficiently complex that I would have liked to have the written version as a crutch. I needed to go back and reread sections, which is always challenging in the audio format.

Melancholy and romantic as October in Paris

Once again, Alan Furst immerses us in the drama of pre-WWII Europe, from glittering cafes in Paris to the backstreets of Izmir. George Guidell is a great narrator for Furst, carefully pronouncing names, giving hints of accents without being overly broad, and conveying the sadness and tenderness that are at the heart of Furst's stories.

A brilliant account of the lead up to war

First writes a superb account of the life and loves of a Jewish Russian journalist ,his striving to stay alive and a very realistic account of the intrigue lading to the second world

Definitely recommended

A complex but fascinating look at the last years before the full outbreak of WWII. The machinations of the NKVD in Russia and their Nazi opponents. A little difficult to follow at times, but well worth the effort. Brings the period to life in technicolor. If you know someone who lived through this period in Eastern Europe, you will have a much better understanding of what they experienced.

Dark Star

A good listen. Intersting characters, good plot, and terrific atmospherics. It helps to know a little about Soviet history or at least be willing to look things up if that curious. Even, however, without much historical knowledge, the plot is still fascinating and in its broad outlines makes sense. Think Carre, noir and Littel and you will have a sense of how the book reads.

good-but not his best work

Some of his other books are better. This one had too broad a story to maintain long term interest. Well written as usual. Best part was his description of how Russians thought during the Stalinist purges of the 30s.