Kingdom of Shadows (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)
At a glance:
- Author: Alan Furst
- First Published: 2001
- Type of Work: Novel
- Time of Work: 1938-1939
- Setting: Paris, Juan-les-Pins, and Thiais, France; Antwerp; Uzhorod, Marienbad, and Decin, Czechoslovakia; Budapest; Bromley-on-Ware, Sussex, England; Cluj, Bistrita, and Siguranza, Romania; Geneva; Vienna; Bratislava and Petrzalka, Slovakia
- Principal Characters: Nicholas Morath, Count Janos von Polanyi de Nemeszvar, Mary Day, Caridad (Cara) Valentina Maria Westendorf de Parra y Dionello, Colonel Sombor, Boris Balki, Emile Courtmain, Pavlo, Wolfi Szubl, Kolovitzky
- Genres: Long fiction, Historical fiction, Spy fiction
- Subjects: France or French people, Twentieth century, Europe or Europeans, Paris, 1930’s, England or English people, Nazism or Nazis, Espionage or spies, Austria or Austrians, Switzerland or Swiss people, Vienna, Nobility, Czechoslovakia or Czechoslovakians, Hungary or Hungarians
- Locales: Paris, France, Antwerp, Belgium, Vienna, Austria, Budapest, Hungary, Geneva, Switzerland, Sussex, England, Czechoslovakia, Romania
With his sixth historical espionage novel, Alan Furst has been hailed by reviewers as worthy of comparison to John le Carré as a master of spy fiction. All taking place in Western and Central Europe in the late 1930’s and early 1940’s, Furst’s novels depict the efforts of ordinary citizens thrown into the chaos created by Adolf Hitler’s Germany and Joseph Stalin’s Russia. His heroes realize they can do little to impede the progress of evil, yet they must engage in symbolic gestures to retain their self-respect. Written in a spare style and strongly evocative of its time and...
[The entire page is 1833 words long]
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