The Spies of Warsaw: A Novel
by: Alan Furst
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An autumn evening in 1937. A German engineer arrives at the Warsaw railway station. Tonight, he will be with his Polish mistress; tomorrow, at a workers’ bar in the city’s factory district, he will meet with the military attaché from the French embassy. Information will be exchanged for money. So begins The Spies of Warsaw, the brilliant new novel by Alan Furst, lauded by The New York Times as “America’s preeminent spy novelist.”
War is coming to Europe. French and German intelligence operatives are locked in a life-and-death struggle on the espionage battlefield. At the French embassy, the new military attaché, Colonel Jean-Francois Mercier, a decorated hero of the 1914 war, is drawn into a world of abduction, betrayal, and intrigue in the diplomatic salons and back alleys of Warsaw. At the same time, the handsome aristocrat finds himself in a passionate love affair with a Parisian woman of Polish heritage, a lawyer for the League of Nations.
Colonel Mercier must work in the shadows, amid an extraordinary cast of venal and dangerous characters–Colonel Anton Vyborg of Polish military intelligence; the mysterious and sophisticated Dr. Lapp, senior German Abwehr officer in Warsaw; Malka and Viktor Rozen, at work for the Russian secret service; and Mercier’s brutal and vindictive opponent, Major August Voss of SS counterintelligence. And there are many more, some known to Mercier as spies, some never to be revealed.
The Houston Chronicle has described Furst as “the greatest living writer of espionage fiction.” The Spies of Warsaw is his finest novel to date–the history precise, the writing evocative and powerful, more a novel about spies than a spy novel, exciting, atmospheric, erotic, and impossible to put down.
“As close to heaven as popular fiction can get.”
–Los Angeles Times, about The Foreign Correspondent
“What gleams on the surface in Furst’s books is his vivid, precise evocation of mood, time, place, a letter-perfect re-creation of the quotidian details of World War II Europe that wraps around us like the rich fug of a wartime railway station.”
–Time
“A rich, deeply moving novel of suspense that is equal parts espionage thriller, European history and love story.”
–Herbert Mitgang, The New York Times, about Dark Star
“Some books you read. Others you live. They seep into your dreams and haunt your waking hours until eventually they seem the stuff of memory and experience. Such are the novels of Alan Furst, who uses the shadowy world of espionage to illuminate history and politics with immediacy.”
–Nancy Pate, Orlando Sentinel
An autumn evening in 1937. A German engineer arrives at the Warsaw railway station. Tonight, he will be with his Polish mistress; tomorrow, at a workers’ bar in the city’s factory district, he will meet with the military attaché from the French embassy. Information will be exchanged for money. So begins The Spies of Warsaw, the brilliant new novel by Alan Furst, lauded by The New York Times as “America’s preeminent spy novelist.”
War is coming to Europe. French and German intelligence operatives are locked in a life-and-death struggle on the espionage battlefield. At the French embassy, the new military attaché, Colonel Jean-Francois Mercier, a decorated hero of the 1914 war, is drawn into a world of abduction, betrayal, and intrigue in the diplomatic salons and back alleys of Warsaw. At the same time, the handsome aristocrat finds himself in a passionate love affair with a Parisian woman of Polish heritage, a lawyer for the League of Nations.
Colonel Mercier must work in the shadows, amid an extraordinary cast of venal and dangerous characters–Colonel Anton Vyborg of Polish military intelligence; the mysterious and sophisticated Dr. Lapp, senior German Abwehr officer in Warsaw; Malka and Viktor Rozen, at work for the Russian secret service; and Mercier’s brutal and vindictive opponent, Major August Voss of SS counterintelligence. And there are many more, some known to Mercier as spies, some never to be revealed.
The Houston Chronicle has described Furst as “the greatest living writer of espionage fiction.” The Spies of Warsaw is his finest novel to date–the history precise, the writing evocative and powerful, more a novel about spies than a spy novel, exciting, atmospheric, erotic, and impossible to put down.
“As close to heaven as popular fiction can get.”
–Los Angeles Times, about The Foreign Correspondent
“What gleams on the surface in Furst’s books is his vivid, precise evocation of mood, time, place, a letter-perfect re-creation of the quotidian details of World War II Europe that wraps around us like the rich fug of a wartime railway station.”
–Time
“A rich, deeply moving novel of suspense that is equal parts espionage thriller, European history and love story.”
–Herbert Mitgang, The New York Times, about Dark Star
“Some books you read. Others you live. They seep into your dreams and haunt your waking hours until eventually they seem the stuff of memory and experience. Such are the novels of Alan Furst, who uses the shadowy world of espionage to illuminate history and politics with immediacy.”
–Nancy Pate, Orlando Sentinel
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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: 
- A sleek spy novel, largely devoid of violence, tho not of tension
Following in the wake of Ambler and Le Carre's early spy novels, Alan Furst's latest novel confirms him as the finest spy writer now on the scene. This tale focuses on a Warsaw based French diplomat who uncovers in 1937 the Nazis' tank buildup to invade Russia and then their tactic to attack France through the Ardennes Forest. Furst, a master of brevity and nuance, uses subtlety and polish to carry his story. A nervous spy's impatience is the tick tock of the conductor's watch, the knock knock beat ... Read More
Rating: 
- very good, but ...
First, the good parts: the story is interesting with good characters, the mood is right etc etc etc.
However, there are annoying (and I even suspect intentional) errors in environment: there were no ambassadors to Singapore in 1937 because it was a British colony at the time, there is a multitude of reasons why it is inconceivable for Soviet diplomats in 1937 to send a holiday greeting with menorah to a fellow diplomat, the word 'gene' simply did not exist before 1920s, Tukhachevsky was ... Read More
Rating: - A book you can't put down
Poor Poland. Stuck between Germany and Russia, one of the most unenviable geo-political situations a country could have. This novel convincingly takes you to 1937 Warsaw, with side trips to other European cities, following Major Jean Francois deMercier, French military attache to the French Embassy. Superbly plotted and taut, and cast with finely drawn characters. I couldn't put this novel down. I'd say it's more of a literary spy novel, very realistic depiction of the spy's "craft" as de Mercier is ... Read More
Rating: - Beyond the James Bond Stereotype...
It seems highly unlikely that "The Spies of Warsaw" will ever be made into a movie. That's because it doesn't fit the normal Hollywood formula for this genre -- fast women, violent men and last-minute heroics.
In contrast, Alan Furst delivers a quiet story about the real people who handled espionage work in the years leading up to World War II. Instead of dashing 007, we get Col. Mercier, a sickly military attaché at the French embassy in Warsaw. Instead of Pussy Galore in a bikini, we ... Read More
Rating: - Alan Furst Does It Again!
I was thrilled when I learned that Alan Furst had written a new novel.I soak up everything he writes.In my view, he stands alongside John Le Carre and Robert Ludlum as a master in weaving together tales of espionage in the pre-WWII and post-WWII worlds of intrigue, mystery and danger.
For previous White Rhino Report reviews of other Furst novels, follow this link:
Previous Furst Reviews
Furst paints with a dark palette of words and images, and the worlds and ... Read More
- A sleek spy novel, largely devoid of violence, tho not of tension Following in the wake of Ambler and Le Carre's early spy novels, Alan Furst's latest novel confirms him as the finest spy writer now on the scene. This tale focuses on a Warsaw based French diplomat who uncovers in 1937 the Nazis' tank buildup to invade Russia and then their tactic to attack France through the Ardennes Forest. Furst, a master of brevity and nuance, uses subtlety and polish to carry his story. A nervous spy's impatience is the tick tock of the conductor's watch, the knock knock beat ... Read More
- very good, but ...First, the good parts: the story is interesting with good characters, the mood is right etc etc etc.
However, there are annoying (and I even suspect intentional) errors in environment: there were no ambassadors to Singapore in 1937 because it was a British colony at the time, there is a multitude of reasons why it is inconceivable for Soviet diplomats in 1937 to send a holiday greeting with menorah to a fellow diplomat, the word 'gene' simply did not exist before 1920s, Tukhachevsky was ... Read More
- A book you can't put downPoor Poland. Stuck between Germany and Russia, one of the most unenviable geo-political situations a country could have. This novel convincingly takes you to 1937 Warsaw, with side trips to other European cities, following Major Jean Francois deMercier, French military attache to the French Embassy. Superbly plotted and taut, and cast with finely drawn characters. I couldn't put this novel down. I'd say it's more of a literary spy novel, very realistic depiction of the spy's "craft" as de Mercier is ... Read More
- Beyond the James Bond Stereotype...It seems highly unlikely that "The Spies of Warsaw" will ever be made into a movie. That's because it doesn't fit the normal Hollywood formula for this genre -- fast women, violent men and last-minute heroics.
In contrast, Alan Furst delivers a quiet story about the real people who handled espionage work in the years leading up to World War II. Instead of dashing 007, we get Col. Mercier, a sickly military attaché at the French embassy in Warsaw. Instead of Pussy Galore in a bikini, we ... Read More
- Alan Furst Does It Again!I was thrilled when I learned that Alan Furst had written a new novel.I soak up everything he writes.In my view, he stands alongside John Le Carre and Robert Ludlum as a master in weaving together tales of espionage in the pre-WWII and post-WWII worlds of intrigue, mystery and danger.
For previous White Rhino Report reviews of other Furst novels, follow this link:
Previous Furst Reviews
Furst paints with a dark palette of words and images, and the worlds and ... Read More
