The World at Night: A Novel
by Alan Furst
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Book Summary Information
Author: Alan FurstEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2002-01-08
ISBN: 0375758585
Number of pages: 268
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Book Reviews of The World at Night: A Novel
Book Review: Alan Furst stands first in producing literary thrillers set in pre-World War II Europe
Summary: 5 Stars
Paris, 1940. The world's most beautiful city was still aglow with light. Lovely women wearing designer gowns; elegant brassieres to while away an evening with a good cognac or choice wine; cultural and intellectual life brisk and productive. All of Paris in the last years of peace was set under the French sky of freedom, equality and fraternity. All would soon change for in June, 1940 the Nazis would defeat France and occupy the proud Gallic nation of Napoleon and honor.
The story of this terrible episode in French and European history is vividly evoked in Alan Furst's short 288 gem of a novel" The World at Night." It's hero is film director Jean Casson. Casson is a bon viviant, intellectual and womanizing upper middle class resident of Paris. He is divorced but does not lack for female bedmates. During May, 1940 he is called to the war against the Nazis as part of a film crew. The French army is rapidly defeated with Casson glumly retreating to Paris. He has a torrid affair with Citrine. She is a French film star. Citrine is a good woman who despises the Boche invaders. She and Casson become entangled with the French and British resistance to German occupation. Their exciting story opens doors to an understanding of what captive Europe had to endure under the iron boot of cruel Nazi rule in Hitler's vast empire of death.
The novel takes us to Paris, rural France and Spain where Casson is on film location. He endures captivity by the Gestapo; some of his friends are murdered but he emerges from these pages as a patriotic Frenchman who loved liberty and France. The novel is filled with cameos of interesting characters both good and bad.
Furst is a master at limning his spy novel with witty dialogue, solid historical research and keeping suspense and dangerous episodes before the camera eye of the reader. Furst is in the pantheon of such espionage authors as John Le Carre, Eric Ambler and Graham Greene. One wonders why none of his novels has been filmed!
Your humble reviewer picked up his first Furst novel this past summer. I did so and look forward to reading more novels by such a talented novelist as Alan Furst. Excellent! Vive la France!
Summary of The World at Night: A Novel
Paris, 1940. The civilized, upper-class life of film producer Jean Casson is derailed by the German occupation of Paris, but Casson learns that with enough money, compromise, and connections, one need not deny oneself the pleasures of Parisian life. Somewhere inside Casson, though, is a stubborn romantic streak. When he?s offered the chance to take part in an operation of the British secret service, this idealism gives him the courage to say yes. A simple mission, but it goes wrong, and Casson realizes he must gamble everything?his career, the woman he loves, life itself. Here is a brilliant re-creation of France?its spirit in the moment of defeat, its valor in the moment of rebirth.Alan Furst has written three excellent thrillers set in unexpected corners of World War II: Dark Star, Night Soldiers and The Polish Officer. Now he continues his exploration of courage under fire with this haunting story of a film producer caught inside Nazi-occupied France, and what he has to do not only to survive but also to come out with his personal ideas of honor intact.
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