Product Description: In spymaster Alan Furst's most electrifying thriller to date, Hungarian aristocrat Nicholas Morath—a hugely charismatic hero—becomes embroiled in a daring and perilous effort to halt the Nazi war machine in eastern Europe.
Amazon.com Review: Penzler Pick, January 2001: The thrillers of Alan Furst usually take place in the dark days preceding World War II, but while the main participants in that war are of course portrayed, Britain, France, Germany, and the United States do not usually star in Furst's novels. He prefers instead to focus his stories on the citizens of those countries whose allegiances and roles in that particular theater of operations are much more contradictory and conflicted.
Kingdom of Shadows is set in Paris during 1938 and 1939. It is unclear at that time what the fate of Hungary will be if Hitler has his way, but a small group of expatriates would like to insure that events turn out in their country's favor. Nicholas Morath is an Hungarian aristocrat who fought bravely in the Great War. He is now part owner of an advertising agency in Paris, while his uncle, Count Janos Polanyi, is a minor diplomat stationed in Paris. Polanyi calls on Nicholas to take part in missions against the Hungarian Fascists: carrying letters or bringing individuals back across the border in the course of his business trips.
As Nicholas's dinner parties, business deals, and dalliances with his mistress start to take a back seat to the escalating crisis in Europe, his tasks become more complicated, dangerous, and bewildering to him. He knows far less than the reader, who understands that his actions will have far-reaching consequences even beyond the fate of Hungary. Nicholas just does what he can without the luxury of historic hindsight.
Furst has fashioned here an elegant gem that vividly portrays the city of Paris during the last peaceful days of 1938 and the menace of Hitler's ambitions in the Sudetenland and beyond. Nicholas Morath is a charismatic and sympathetic figure who will come to understand, as the war progresses, the consequences, both good and bad, of his smallest actions during that turbulent time. --Otto Penzler
Not my favorite Furst, but still mighty good Alan Furst does his usual great job of evoking a particular time and place, due to either fantastic research or a brilliant imagination or both. (Did you know the Austro-Hungarian Empire had 10 official languages ? Me neither.) My quibble is with the plot, which meanders quite a bit. The main character performs various risky tasks for his rather mysterious uncle Janos, but it's not clear whether these fit into some overall plan. Perhaps that was Furst's idea, to portray Morath as a tiny cog in great events. The bottom line though is that it's still a great read for any fan of historical fiction set in the 1930's.
gripping peri-war drama I am eagerly looking forward to reading more books by Furst. Set in Europe at the start of WW2, this is a well-fashioned story of bravery and idealism.
A Light in the Kingdom This is my favorite Alan Furst novel. I think what makes this book stand out from his others is that Morath is, if not willing, an accepting spy. There is some ideological moivation behind what he does. Overall he feels to be a more generous person, but his status as part of the Hungarian aristocracy plays into that. He has the means to be more generous.
Kingdom of Shadows Kingdom of Shadows is the second Alan Furst novel I've read. This one follows the opening days of the war with Hitler's rise to power but from the point of view of the owner of an advertising agency in Paris who is balancing his time between work, his mistress and some espionage for his Hungarian uncle.
Nicholas Morath and his small group of friends remind me of the idle and bored characters of F. Scott Fitzgerald's, with Tender is the Night coming specifically to mind. The only difference is that their parties are set against the backdrop of the early days of WWII. Family duty forces Morath to attempt heroic acts at a time when he (and most of the rest of Paris) is having trouble believing what is on the horizon.
As with Dark Voyage, the middle section of the book drags a bit as Hurst pauses to let the historical events play out. The characters step aside and the book becomes more of a book report than a novel. While it's good to get things in context, these interludes are best when skimmed.
Didactic Sorry -- a quick judgment. I only read a bit. The author seems very inent, and heavy-handedly so, on filling us in on details of Hungarian culture. This gave every sign of weighing the plot down so that it could barely move. Two of the principals are having lunch in a seedy cafe. They talk about a friend who died and they take the opportunity to review Hungarian customs and beliefs surrounding dealing with the dead. Of course, we will pay close attention to their eating habits, too -- equally well researched. If I were very particularly interested in or attached to things Hungarian, I might like this, and I can imagine sensible people who would enjoy it, but it isn't what I was after.
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