The Polish Officer : A Novel

"September 1939. As Warsaw falls to Hitler's Wehrmacht, Captain Alexander de Milja is recruited by the intelligence service of the Polish underground. His mission: to transport the national gold reserve to safety, hidden on a refugee train to Bucharest. Then, in the back alleys and black-market bistros of Paris, in the tenements of Warsaw, with partizan guerrillas in the frozen forests of the Ukraine, and at Calais Harbor during an attack by British bombers, de Milja fights in the war of the shadows in a world without rules, a world of danger, treachery, and betrayal. Alan Furst, an acknowledged master of the European espionage thriller, has produced a stunning achievement in the Polish Officer: dark, evocative, authentic, and taut with suspens."--Back cover "September, 1939. The opening days of World War II. The invading German Wehrmacht blazes a trail of destruction across Poland. Warsaw is surrounded. France and Britain declare war, but do nothing to help. And a Polish resistance movement takes shape under the shadow of occupation, enlisting those willing to risk death in a David-and-Goliath struggle for a nation's survival. Among them is Captain Alexander de Milja, an officer in the Polish military intelligence service, a cartographer who now must learn a dangerous new role; spymaster in the anti-Nazi underground. Beginning with a daring operation to smuggle the Polish National Gold Reserve to the government in exile, he slips into the shadowy and treacherous front lines of espionage that span occupied Europe; he moves through Poland, France, and the Ukraine, changing identities and staying one step ahead of capture. In Warsaw, he engineers a subversive campaign to strengthen the people's will to resist. In Paris, he poses as a Russian poet, then as a Slovakian coal merchant, drinking champagne in black-market bistros with Nazis while uncovering information about German battle plans. And a love affair with a woman of the French Resistance leads him to make the greatest decision of his life. In the Polish Officer, Alan Furst returns to the shadowy, clandestine arena of World War II spycraft, and the result is a gripping, panoramic espionage novel in the tradition of Graham Greene and John le Carré. The Polish Officer, like Furst's acclaimed Night Soldiers and Dark Star, has a haunting authenticity that brings the era to vital life. His story, brilliantly and colorfully cast, is written with a keen awareness of the nuances of national character, individual psychology, and the weight of history. It evokes the turmoil of a world gone mad, and the courageous heroism of ordinary men and women during the darkest hours of our time. Literate, sophisticated, and utterly convincing, it is by far Furst's best work to date."--Book jacket flap In spymaster Alan Furst's most electrifying thriller to date, Hungarian aristocrat Nicholas Morath becomes embroiled in a daring and perilous effort to halt the Nazi war machine in eastern Europe. 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. Paris, 1938. As Europe edges towards war, Nicholas Morath, an urbane former cavalry officer, spends his days working at the small advertising agency he owns and his nights in the bohemian circles of his Argentine mistress. But Morath has been recruited by his uncle, Count Janos Polanyi, a diplomat in the Hungarian legation, for operations against Hitler's Germany

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.


From the Hardcover edition.

Robert J. Hughes

A triumph: evocative, heartfelt, knowing and witty.

IN POLAND, ON THE NIGHT OF 11 SEPTEMBER 1939, WEHRMACHT scout and commando units-elements of Kuechler's Third Army Corps-moved silently around the defenses of Novy Dvor, crossed the Vistula over the partly demolished Jablonka Bridge, and attempted to capture the Warsaw Telephone Exchange at the northern edge of the city. In September 1939, As German Forces Ravage Poland, Captain Alexander De Milja, A Polish Intelligence Officer With The Resistance Underground, Risks His Life In The Treacherous World Of Global Espionage To Help His Country. Reader's Guide Included. Reprint. 30,000 First Printing.