DARK STAR

by Alan Furst ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 1991

Furst, who has progressed from spy sendups (The Paris Drop, 1980) to first-class spy fiction (Night Soldiers, 1988), turns in an exceptionally fine novel about a man progressing from Soviet journalist to Soviet spy and onward in the 1930's. Until he is made the unwilling recipient of shattering evidence of Stalin's prerevolutionary treachery, Pravda correspondent AndrÉ Szara, a secular Polish-born Jew, has had the good fortune to be untouched by Stalin's purges--mass murders amounting to a pogrom at the highest level of government, clearing the Jewish intellectuals out of the central Party machinery. Why has Szara been saddled with the horrifying incriminating documents? He would like nothing better than to stay clear of the political infighting. But his scrupulously loyal revolutionary journalism is ultimately no protection for the writer; the intelligence apparat requires him to dip into a little espionage, and as the Nazis continue to prosper and war becomes more of a threat for the motherland, spying overshadows writing. He becomes an operative in Paris. Szara's primary asset, however, is a Berliner--the Jewish owner of a factory making a strategic material for the Wehrmacht. As Szara spies for the NKVD, slipping in and out of Nazi Germany, he spies also for the anti-Stalinist shadow intelligence network that provided the mysterious evidence of the Generalissimo's early sins. Then his efforts prove too effective as he uncovers what appears to be most secret German-Russian complicity. Battered by his secrets, Szara survives and even grows, becoming an essential part of efforts to get Jews out of Europe and into Palestine and then a witness to the Nazi invasion of Poland and the Soviet acquiescence to that act. From time to time there are nights of love with women as scared as he is. Then it is time to save himself. Kafka, Dostoyevsky, and le CarrÉ sit up all night and talk to each other and this is what you get. It is absolutely wonderful.

Pub Date: March 1, 1991

ISBN: 0375759999

Page Count: -

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1991

Categories: FICTION