by Alan Furst (Author)
September, 1939. The invading German Wehrmacht blazes a trail of destruction across Poland. Warsaw is surrounded. France and Britain declare war, but do nothing to help. And a Polish resistance movement takes shape under the shadow of occupation, enlisting those willing to risk death in the struggle for their nation's survival. Among them is Captain Alexander de Milja, an officer in the Polish military intelligence service, a cartographer who now must learn a dangerous new role: spymaster in the anti-Nazi underground. Beginning with a daring operation to smuggle the Polish National Gold Reserve to the government in exile, he slips into the shadowy and treacherous front lines of espionage that span occupied Europe; he moves through Poland, France, and the Ukraine, changing identities and staying one step ahead of capture. In Warsaw, he engineers a subversive campaign to strengthen the people's will to resist. In Paris, he poses as a Russian poet, then as a Slovakian coal merchant, drinking champagne in black-market bistros with Nazis while uncovering information about German battle plans.And a love affair with a woman of the French Resistance leads him to make the greatest decision of his life.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 352
Edition: New edition
Publisher: Phoenix
Published: 21 Apr 2005
ISBN 10: 0753818140
ISBN 13: 9780753818145
Book Overview: First time in Phoenix Paperback 'One of the best novels of the year...Brilliant' Robert Harris 'You can almost hear the chained wheels of the Gestapo car on the snow, the whack of bullets in the moonlit Polish forests, the quietness of occupied Paris by night' Observer 'Surely among the most convincing war books of our time' Sunday Telegraph Alan Furst has a tremendous reputation and therefore we have taken on 5 of his backlist titles to continue building him. His last book, Blood of Victory, was a New York Times bestseller