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    The World at Night: A Novel
    The World at Night: A Novel
    The World at Night: A Novel
    Audiobook9 hours

    The World at Night: A Novel

    Written by Alan Furst

    Narrated by George Guidall

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Paris, 1940. The civilized, upper-class life of film producer Jean Casson is derailed by the German occupation of Paris, but Casson learns that with enough money, compromise, and connections, one need not deny oneself the pleasures of Parisian life. Somewhere inside Casson, though, is a stubborn romantic streak. When he's offered the chance to take part in an operation of the British secret service, this idealism gives him the courage to say yes. A simple mission, but it goes wrong, and Casson realizes he must gamble everything-his career, the woman he loves, life itself. Here is a brilliant re-creation of France-its spirit in the moment of defeat, its valor in the moment of rebirth.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateMar 10, 2008
    ISBN9781440795459
    The World at Night: A Novel
    Author

    Alan Furst

    Alan 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, Red Gold, Kingdom of Shadows, Blood of Victory, and Dark Voyage. Born in New York, he has lived for long periods in France, especially Paris. He now lives on Long Island, New York. Visit the author's website at AlanFurst.net.

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    Reviews for The World at Night

    4.5/5

    18 ratings7 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Paris in the '30 as seen through the eyes of a Parisian artist/reluctant spy. It's seems like I'm seeing a noir black and white movie of the '30s in my head. WAY better than movies.
    • 5/5
      The world of Jean Casson is changing fast immediately after the occupation of the German Wehrmacht. Alan Furst uses this setting for the development of this gripping story, which is beautifully narrated by George Guidall.
    • 5/5
      This is, perhaps, my favorite of Alan Furst's masterpieces of WWII fiction. It traces the story of Khristo Stoianev, a Bulgarian peasant, as fate shoves him from his remote village along the Danube to a KGB training camp in Moscow to revolutionary Spain and from there to Paris.His journey is the journey from Facism to Communism and finally to a sort of redemption. Along the way he finds himself fighting in all the major theaters of the European war and we see how it develops throug...more This is, perhaps, my favorite of Alan Furst's masterpieces of WWII fiction. It traces the story of Khristo Stoianev, a Bulgarian peasant, as fate shoves him from his remote village along the Danube to a KGB training camp in Moscow to revolutionary Spain and from there to Paris.His journey is the journey from Facism to Communism and finally to a sort of redemption. Along the way he finds himself fighting in all the major theaters of the European war and we see how it develops through his eyes.A must, must read for anyone interested in WWII.
    • 4/5
      The usual Alan Furst: WWII occupied France, an everyday man asked to perform dangerous, but ultimately minor tasks that probably have no effect on the outcome one way or the other.Not his best work, but even weak Alan Furst is better than most writers in this genre.
    • 3/5
      Not my favorite of Alan Furst's World War II spy novels, possibly because the protagonist is less sympathetic, it's never clear exactly what his missions are and what the competing German and British intelligence agents he works with/against are attempting to accomplish. It also lacks some of the fine detail of Furst's other novels that take the reader into the tense lives of ordinary people in an incredible time.
    • 3/5
      Jean Casson, a Parisian movie producer with a string of moderately successful dramas / thrillers under his belt, is caught up in daily survival after the Nazis storm Belgium and France in May 1940 and soon occupy Paris. We follow Casson as he adapts his social routines and business to the Occupation, increasingly forced to examine what's important to him, and precisely what he's prepared to sacrifice.A sub-plot involves Casson's efforts to make a movie during the Occupation, working with UFA and wondering how much must change now that the Nazis are involved, what constitutes collaboration and what is, simply, making a movie in strange times. The whole effort serves as a commentary, both on Casson as a character, and intentionally or not, also on the reader of genre fiction such as the spy novel. Good stuff.Much is made of Furst's atmospherics, often with a whiff of disdain. Were there nothing else to the novel, I could agree with the criticism. For me, though, The World At Night is a little tale, told with panache and a very comfortable sense of time & place, and much of this is deliberate. But knotted at the heart of this story is a sober glimpse of the moral (and sometimes, ethical) weight pulling at a life in conflict. Like Hitchcock, I think, the point is not to be dramatic or focus on the events of History. Rather, it is to examine the tensions and dilemmas of an ordinary person caught up in extraordinary circumstances, and from it glean something worth taking to heart. The agent / counter-agent business, Casson's collaboration with saboteurs, are very much a MacGuffin.The ending was unexpected, as other reviews have mentioned, but I do not make too much of it. The turnabout came quickly, was handled in a few paragraphs, and the story was done. Primarily it was the speed of it that shocked. But it did not change the central problems facing Casson throughout the novel, and for that reason, I think, it is quite fitting.NOTE: Furst mentioned in his Aug 09 Author Chat that this book marks his first use of what he termed the "existential novel", culminating in Kingdom Of Shadows. He implied the first three books took a different form, and that those following Kingdom Of Shadows similarly adopted a different overall literary approach. So while his novels are often mentioned as an informal series, Furst suggests there may be mini-serials within the set.
    • 4/5
      Alan Furst's WW II novels do not fail to please me. Atmospheric, and steeped in the melancholy of ordinary people coping with the necessities of living in an environment of occupation by an alien nation. In this book, Mr. Furst does not dwell on the ugliness, just notes it, and moves on to explore how to work around it and just live your life. Many fine sketches of Paris in the 1930s and 1940s.