Audiobook17 hours
Dark Star: A Novel
Written by Alan Furst
Narrated by George Guidall
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
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About this audiobook
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.
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.
Author
Alan Furst
Alan Furst is widely recognized as the master of the historical spy novel. He is the author of Night Soldiers, Dark Star, The Polish Officer, The World at Night, Red Gold, Kingdom of Shadows, Blood of Victory, and Dark Voyage. Born in New York, he has lived for long periods in France, especially Paris. He now lives on Long Island, New York. Visit the author's website at AlanFurst.net.
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Night Soldiers: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dark Star: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Polish Officer: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The World at Night: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Red Gold: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
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Reviews for Dark Star
Rating: 4.083333333333333 out of 5 stars
4/5
24 ratings11 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This was a difficult book to read, especially the first part (with all of the Russian names and Russian history that I don't really know). But it really evokes the world of a WWII spy, with all of its grit. The combination of the book's atmosphere and its implicit history lesson makes a worthwhile read.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Magical realism with a Russian twist.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5My 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.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The plot revolves around the adventures of a Russian Journalist, who in the course of the novel metamorphs from a rather vain intellectual into the manager of a Soviet spy network in Berlin and Paris, there saving thousands of Jews from Nazi deportation, to a refugee who wanders all over Eastern Europe and finally into a Anti-Nazi agent working for a German-Hungarian diplomat. It is a story rich with historic background, quixotic adventures and full of suspense. It is a masterful depiction of an absurd era, interesting and enjoyable from the first line to the last!
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Poorly written and confusing. Furst tells you that a character is "the type of man who ..." instead of showing character. Lots of historical detail, but poorly presented - reader must sit with wikipedia to figure out what half of the references mean.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Furst is one of the best at creating the atmosphere of place, the era as seen by people at the time. I've been lucky enough to visit Paris, and he nails it - almost like being there.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dark StarAlan FurstMay 2, 2010 8:10 PMAn on the plane novel for the trip to lecture in Toronto, finished compulsively in a long session on a Sunday afternoon. The hero, Andre Szara, is a Soviet journalist; the setting is Europe in 1938 and 1939. He is, naturally, Jewish, a survivor of Polish progroms and a fighter in the Russo-Polish war and World War 1. He initially only does an occasional task for the NKVD, but discovers some embarrassing evidence that Stalin was an agent for the Czarist secret police, and finds a connection to industry in Nazi Germany, and is absorbed into the apparat as a spymaster. Through contacts with Jewish financiers in France, and with an agent in the German foreign office service, he survives, acquiring a mistress and lover. The story moves well but there is one plot device that makes no sense - there is no internal logic for Szara to be in the Polish countryside when war starts. The characters are believable, the logic of the spy world is fascinating.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The story takes place pre-World War II, in 1937. Andre Szara is a Polish-born journalist working for the Russian newspaper Pravda. While just doing his job, he gets coerced into working with the NKVD (Soviet secret intelligence). Setting up base in Paris, Szara becomes pretty much a spy for Russia. He travels across Europe as a spy and a journalist, enlisting the help of an agent in Berlin with whom he develops romantic connections.Ok. So a spy novel. But Furst knows his history...sometimes a little too much. But I loved the cloak and dagger feel of the book and the time period was just crazy. I can't imagine traipsing around Europe right before WWII.I'm going to definitely check out his other books.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I thought this was a very good book. It is a spy novel set in the years 1937-1941 in Europe. It is similar to some books by Eric Ambler where a novice is thrust into the world of espionage. The protagonist, Andre Szara, is a writer for Pravda who through circumstance becomes an agent of the Russian foreign intelligence service. His Jewish background figures prominently in the story because that fact was significant in all of Europe in that era.Szara is always at the center of the plot. He becomes involved in separate ongoing plot lines as a journalist, a Russian spy, a British spy, a Zionist agent and a lover fighting an on and off battle for personal survival. The author fashions the characters with great subtlety. They all move in a world where the truth is not obvious and what is obvious is not the truth. Even Szara does not always share his thoughts with the reader until necessary.Szara's two love affairs are portrayed with tenderness and poignancy. Szara shows a belief in love as the true goodness in life. He falls in love quickly and fully and this provides for Szara and the reader a respite from the quietly vicious actions that make up the majority of the interplay between the characters in the book.The historical background of the book cuts a wide swath through the events of the period. Szara runs from Nazi bullies on Kristallnacht and travels with a Polish officer during the invasion of Poland. He reads a dossier of the early career of Stalin as a double agent of the Czar's secret service. These events add to the drama and emotional intensity of the book.I would recommend this book as a well told adventure in an interesting historical era. The variety of characters and the significance of the events portrayed add to the enjoyment. I have one other book by this author and plan to read it soon.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Andre Szara's adventures as spy/journalist through pre-war Europe is an absorbing read. The details of sight, sound, smell and fury of the era are brought out as he moves through the mazes of this time. I am looking forward to the next Furst thriller.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I found this book compelling and involving, but so futile, depressing and sad that I couldn't finish it. This is my problem, not the writer's. It is tempting to say that my problem with the book is related to the fact that the reader knows how terribly everything will turn out, but lots of other readers seem to deal with that very comfortably.