For those not familiar with Alan Furst, a quick summary: Furst is an American novelist who has written more than a dozen novels about the period in Europe leading up to and during the early years of World War II, which are in the “spy thriller” genre, but are so much more.
As he has commented, his stories, which take place in various capitals and countries all over eastern and western Europe, try to capture the lived experience of ordinary people faced daily with unavoidable moral choices between going along with evil or resisting that evil, and having to risk or choose life or death for themselves and others as the price of the choices they must make. This perspective and Furst’s skill as a fiction writer make for some of the best spy novels ever written about World War II and its prelude.
Under Occupation features the latest in his obligatory middle-aged male leads, this one a writer of detective novels living in occupied Paris. I had the feeling that this particular character was particularly close to Furst's heart and personal identity, almost as though he was imagining himself (a real-life writer of spy novels) trying to survive and participate in the World War II Resistance. Most of his other heroes don't do exactly the same kind of work he does.
But in any case, it’s a very compelling story, with a new set of interesting, likable and complex characters, a couple of artful sex scenes, moments of tension and fast action, and of course some treacherous Nazis and collaborators to overcome. Recommended.
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