Dark Star: A Novel
by Alan Furst

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Book Summary Information

• ISBN13: 9780375759994
• Condition: New
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Book Reviews of Dark Star: A Novel

Book Review: Excellent, vivid period piece
Summary: 5 Stars

The hero is a Furst standard: middle-aged Eastern European World War I veteran in the 1930s who is not a spy by trade (this is true for 5 of his 7 books based in the 1930s). In this case, Andre Szara is a Russian writer for Pravda, and veteran of World War I and the Russian Revolution, who does "favors" for the Soviet intelligence service, the NKVD (the KGB's precursor), when necessary. But Szara becomes unwittingly entangled in a plot by members of the NKVD to overthrow Stalin and end the Stalin purges of the late 1930s (which were run through the Soviet Secret Police, the OGPU), and ends up as a target of the Secret Police. Szara is essentially rescued by an NKVD insider and turned into an agent-handler. He becomes a spymaster in Paris who is trying to develop and then manage a German "asset" who may be a double agent. The rest of the novel is the pawn's-eye view of a power play between German and Russian intelligence organizations.

This novel has numerous twists and turns -- who is working for whom, is the German asset feeding false information to the Soviets, who is trying to undermine Stalin or Hitler or both, will Szara continue to find his way out of trouble or will the OGPU claim him as yet another victim of the purges?

Adding to the novel's considerable depth is Szara himself. He is a stranger-in-a-strange land archetype four times over: a Pole who emigrated to Russia to fight in the October Revolution believing in the Communist dream; a Pravda "reporter" who is a non-Stalinist in Stalin-controlled Russia; a Russian citizen accustomed to government-enforced deprivation living in decadent 1930s Paris; and a Jew whose duties force him to spend copious amounts of time in Hitler's Berlin, including during Kristallnacht (Szara's activities during Kristallnacht are a scene that is among the best of Furst's writing in realistically depicting Germany under Hitler's sway). This is a gloomier book than some of Furst's others (Kingdom of Shadows, Blood of Victory) but the subject matter is handled brilliantly. It's a dark picture and Furst paints it well as always.

Summary of Dark Star: A Novel

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