Title: An espionage novel of the finest kind
Product review: Second in Alan Furst's sequence of espionage novels set in late 1930's and early 1940's Europe, "Dark Star" focuses upon the experiences of Andre Szara, a Soviet journalist of Polish-Jewish origins and a reluctant spy for the NKVD. Szara's byzantine path takes him through the mutual horrors of Hitler's Germany and of the Stalinist underground. Furst's hero is certainly no ideologue, just a decent man caught up in forces stronger than he is, a man trying to find a way to survive and, when possible, to do a little good. The espionage tradecraft depicted is highly authentic, certainly fully as much as anything from John leCarre. "Dark Star" is a fully absorbing novel, painting a thoroughly convincing portrait of a past era.
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