Special Offers see all
More at Powell'sRecently Viewed clear list
Original Essays | May 3, 2013
2 comments
|
 
$10.50
List price:
Used Trade Paper
Ships in 1 to 3 days
More copies of this ISBNThis title in other editionsRed Goldby Alan Furst
Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:Autumn 1941: In a shabby hotel off the place Clichy, the course of the war is about to change. German tanks are rolling toward Moscow. Stalin has issued a decree: All partisan operatives are to strike behind enemy lines — from Kiev to Brittany. Set in the back streets of Paris and deep in occupied France, Red Gold moves with quiet menace as predators from the dark edge of war — arms dealers, lawyers, spies, and assassins — emerge from the shadows of the Parisian underworld. In their midst is Jean Casson, once a well-to-do film producer, now a target of the Gestapo living on a few francs a day. As the occupation tightens, Casson is drawn into an ill-fated mission: running guns to combat units of the French Communist Party. Reprisals are brutal. At last the real resistance has begun. Red Gold masterfully re-creates the shadow world of French resistance in the darkest days of World War II.
Review:"This sequel to The World at Night just may be better than its superb predecessor. Certainly, Furst has established himself as a modern master of WWII espionage: not since the doors were still open at Rick's Café Americain has the pungent smoke from Gauloises cigarettes filled a room with such a heady mix of trench-coated intrigue and romance by searchlight....What makes Casson so appealing, and this novel so entertaining, is the way Furst refuses to let his hero off the hook." Booklist (starred and boxed review)
Review:"The surprising delicacy of [Red Gold] lies in portraying how the human spirit refused to be crushed by the oppressive menace of Nazi occupation, not in the cliché mould of heroic resistance, but in the determination of, in this case, communist partisans to wage a little private struggle with the Gaullist resistance against whom they might be pitted in the future. The prose is as meagerly rationed as wartime food, the high political background only hinted at, and the dangers emanating not just from the occupiers but the occupied as well are clearly but subtly expressed." The Economist (UK)
Review:"What the espionage novels of John le Carré were for the Cold War, those of Alan Furst have become for the period that might be called 'the sable decade'....Furst may have no peer in his ability to re-create the atmosphere of the nether world of continental Europe during the war years." St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Review:"From the atmosphere established in his fifth novel's first sentence ("Casson woke in a room in a cheap hotel and smoked his last cigarette") to the knock on the door at the denouement, Furst again proves himself the master of his chosen terrain — behind the lines of Nazi occupation in France during WWII....Furst's textured plot — exhibiting shifting loyalties and betrayals; lone, often hopeless acts of heroism; and lovers bravely parting — makes for spellbinding drama....Furst, who deserves the comparisons he's earned to Graham Greene and Eric Ambler, seems to be settling into a franchise here, rather than reaching for the fire he caught in his third novel, The Polish Officer. Casson's story unfolds convincingly, however, and as it continues here to April of 1942, promises a few more episodes to come from this author's tried and true brand of masterfully detailed espionage." Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Review:"More masterful, richly atmospheric WWII spy fiction sends Furst's despairing, dissolute, but delightfully resourceful film producer Jean Casson on yet another existential errand among the fiends and fanatics of the French Resistance....Despite the occasional history lecture, Furst's intricate exploration of a stylishly lethal war-torn Paris never fails to fascinate. Witty, inventive, distinctively French film-noir espionage, told with the terse brutality and jaundiced romanticism of Chandler and Hammett at their peak." Kirkus Reviews
Review:"Furst proves himself to be a master at capturing the bleak and mean mood of wartime Paris....The ambiance of wartime Paris lingers on after this story is over." Alan Riding, New York Times Book Review
Review:"Nothing can be like watching Casablanca for the first time, but Furst comes closer than anyone has in years." Time
About the AuthorAlan 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, and The Kingdom of Shadows. Born in New York, he has lived for long periods in France, especially in Paris. He now lives on Long Island, New York.
What Our Readers Are SayingBe the first to add a comment for a chance to win!Product Details
Other books you might likeRelated Subjects
Fiction and Poetry » Literature » A to Z
|
|||||||||
|
|
||||||||||
|
Follow us on...
|
||||||||||
