Kingdom of Shadows: A Novel

Amazon.com's Best of 2001

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

Book 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.

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Paris, 1938. Forty-four-year-old Nicholas Morath is a handsome, sophisticated former cavalry officer in a community of declasse royalty. The co-owner of a small Paris advertising agency, he seems to live for dinner parties and love affairs. But looming over this elegant world is the shadow of Adolf Hitler, and as the small nations of eastern Europe fall under Nazi domination, Morath's uncle, Count Janos Polanyi, recruits his nephew for secret missions to oppose the Hungarian fascists. As Europe edges toward war, these missions grow ever more daring and dangerous, until Morath is risking his life in the fight against the secret police, Germany spies, and Soviet assassins. Breathtakingly evocative and surprising to its final page, Furst's latest espionage thriller is a triumph.

Customer Reviews:

Kingdom of Shadows.......2007-10-14

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.......2007-07-10

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.

not my Furst book by this author.......2007-05-09

Once I discover an author I like, my life-long habit is to read almost everything that author has written. (This took several years in the case of Patrick O'Brian.) This practice is particularly rewarding with Alan Furst's books, since they provide different perspectives of the same period of time (1933-1943).

I claim to have "read" most of Furst's books but honesty compels me to admit that I had George Guidall read them to me. (Did you know that George has narrated over 800 audiobooks?) I think if I had read the Furst novels the old-fashioned way instead of listening while I drive I might have been more impatient with some of the minor weaknesses pointed out by other reviewers (plot, characters, motivation, abrupt endings etc.)

Furst's books have helped me better understand the events that lead up to the Second World War. This is partly due to his detailed research and partly due to my own research - I always hit the books and the Internet immediately after finishing each Furst novel. After finishing the "Kingdom of Shadows", for example, I read numerous articles on the Sudetenland which made me more sympathetic to its German inhabitants than Furst's pro-Czech point of view. This is not to criticize Furst's research but to compliment him for inspiring me to read more on this subject.

If you "read" the Guidall audiobook version of "Kingdom", you'll enjoy the bonus interview of the author. Guidall asks Furst about the interesting quote "life is like licking honey from a thorn" which Furst attributes to someone else. I poked around on the web and found several versions of this - nothing too definitive - including "Hungarian proverb" "Welsh proverb"(!), and "quotation from the Slovenian-American author Louis Adamic."

Anyway, "Kingdom of Shadows" was a good read and if in fact Furst mangled some Hungarian poetry as a more erudite reviewer pointed out it certainly didn't detract from my enjoyment of the book!

The War Before the Fighting Began.......2007-05-09

The period covered by this novel are the years 1938 to 1939, just before the German attack on Poland on September 1, 1939. While the French and British try to placate Hitler, Hungary under Admiral Horthy is trying to remain an interested friend to everyone. But one Hitler starts to dismantle Czecho- Slovakia, the Hungarians have to decide whose side they will be on. For sure they will be on the anti-Russian side, but who will they be with.

We once again meet the incomparable Janos Count Polanyi who is working out of the Hungarian embassy in Paris. Janos is still doing his bit to try and save Hungary from the next war, by fighting against the facist Arrow Cross. He is now using his nephew (and heir) Nicholas Morath as a go between as part of teaching him the family business. Morath gets involved with various types of intrigue, mostly related to smuggling both money and people across borders.

After Janos sets up the suicide of the embassy fascist in charge of the intelligence service (by shooting him in the head), he disappears. Everything including the title is left to Nicholas. As Count Morath, he is now expected to take over ALL of his uncles duties. Though we get the feeling that Uncle Janos is really somewhere behind the scene watching to see how his protoge is doing. He has nothing to worry about.

All this is done against the backdrop of the German demands for the Sudetenland, the Ansluss of Austria, the take-over of Danzig, the splitting of Slovakia into an independent state, and the Hungarian take-over of Ruthenia. Furst is a master of creating the feeling that you are there in the steamy backrooms with members of the White Russians underground, and those from other empires destroyed by WWI as they bargain to get back to and control of their homelands.

Taut, well-written yet ambiguous espionage novel best suited for deep reading.......2007-03-15

"Kingdom of Shadows" is the first novel by Alan Furst that I have read, and I have to say that I am very, very impressed with Mr. Furst as a writer. Unfortunately, I am not in a position in my life where reading Mr. Furst's kind of writing is easy to do.

Full disclosure - I work long hours and I have two small children. Accordingly, there are very few quiet hours at home for sinking into the armchair for some "serious reading." Instead, I get to do most of my reading on the bus or on the elliptical machine at the gym. While I am able to enjoy most books to their full measure in that manner, this is not the optimum way to savour a dense or subtle book - and "Kingdom of Shadows" is both. (And I mean this as a compliment.)

A lean work at 238 pages, "Kingdom of Shadows" has a lot of story. The hero, Nicholas Morath, is a Hungarian expatriate living in Paris in 1938. Europe has barely recovered from the Great War, in which Nicholas fought heroically, and yet the Nazis loom on the horizon. Working with his uncle, a minor Hungarian diplomat in Paris, Morath is thrust deeper and deeper into an mysterious world of espionage where not only does the right hand not know what the left hand is doing, but the fingers aren't exactly communicating, either.

Furst sets most of "Kingdom of Shadows" in the world of Hungarian pre-war politics, something about which I was completely ignorant. That places me on a good footing with Morath, who has no idea what his missions are really about and surely has no clue as to the coming conflagration that will sweep across Europe. But I loved the book as Furst took me from the streets of Paris to the Carpathians to an idyllic holiday on the shore to a Nazi-occupied hotel in Vienna. Rich, vivid descriptions of both the countryside and daily city life make "Kingdom of Shadows" a wonderful read.

The only thing that makes me give this book four stars is the fact that the dialogue and plotting of the book was so darn subtle that I think I missed at least half of what Furst meant for me to catch. After re-readinng several passages, I still had virtually no clue as to what was going or why. Some will chalk it up to my shortcomings, but to be fair I have read books by John Le Carre, Daniel Silva, and Graham Greene on the bus and at the gym and not felt so stymied.

I am sure that if I can give Furst's words the care and attention they deserve, in an armchair and fortified with a tumbler of Scotch, I would write a rave review. As it is, "Kingdom of Shadows" must content itself with a very good review and a solid recommendation.

The English Resistance: The Underground War Against the Normans

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A STUDY WORTHY OF MORE THAN 5-STARS!
*not* La Résistance!

The English Resistance: The Underground War Against the Normans
Peter Rex
Manufacturer: Tempus
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 075243733X

Book Description

In 1066 the English were conquered by the infamous invader, William the Conqueror. However, this is not the whole story. The English did not roll over and die before their suppressors—far from it. Peter Rex brings to life the resistance, from those who allied themselves with the new regime to those who went “underground” to subvert it such as Hereward the Wake and Edric the Wild. Rex examines William’s pacification attempts, alongside his notorious “harrying” of the north.

Customer Reviews:

A STUDY WORTHY OF MORE THAN 5-STARS!.......2007-09-27

Having interest in this period since college days and having books on the shelf of this period, I was pleasantly surprised at last to find a book that told of the period after the 1066 conquest. Most generally whether in college courses or history books dealing this this era, everything halts at the conquest. Everything was fine, peaceful, everyone working together, right? Well as the author relates, nothing could be farther from the tragic truth.

However, as this author and his engrossing book tell much happened in this hardly ever written about "underground war against the Normans". The book is well written, easy to comprehend, and shows the resistance the English continued to offer after the 1066 battle. William did not begin to build the Tower of London because all things were peaceful, no, and in many, many other places as well small castles were needed to keep William's men from being themselves wiped out. All important offices were taken from the English and given to the Norman vassals, a complete changing of the guard.

Though some would view William as offering 'pacification attempts' the truth more nearly approaches a campaign of totally doing away with the native population. William seems to have had little use, trust, or respect for any native English person. The sooner they were gone the better.

This is some story and one wonders just why no one else through the years has bothered to tell it. History at its best.

Semper Fi.

*not* La Résistance!.......2004-04-19

To paraphrase H.G Wells rather melodramatically, no one would believe in the first years of the 21st century that this nation was once watched keenly and covetously by formidable personalities from across the channel; that as Englishmen busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied...

The aftermath to the Battle of Hastings was violent and ruthless. William of Normandy's achievements can be seen as a formidable combination of both clear-minded political magination and merciless, hard-nosed execution. However, after William's victory in 1066, the English were not a people who could simply roll over and allow the invaders free access to the island's bounty. A tough and equally brutal resistance was fought against Norman rule for a further five years.

Peter Rex's brilliantly researched book overturns today's meekly accepted stance that the Normans invaded and that was that. Walt, in Julian Rathbone's "The Last English King", refuses to call William 'the Conqueror' (preferring, as you might expect, an earthier soubriquet referencing William's illegitimacy) and the impression you get from "The English Resistance" is similarly one of a population rejecting the concept that they are under enemy control.

Every campaign fought during the years 1067 to 1071 is detailed, with Rex analysing the resistance's character, its motives and its triumphs and disappointments. Here, we are focussed on a time when England was divided into occupied and unoccupied zones, collaborative areas and no-go districts, resistance movements spreading through remote areas of the country.

The book examines William's responses, his initial attempts at pacification, and then the notorious harrying of the north (a rather impotent euphemism that, I've always thought, for which we might readily substitute 'genocide' or 'ethnic cleansing' if these battles and skirmishes were being played out on our news screens today). This is an eloquent portrayal of a chaotic period, which demonstrates that the English were not conquered as easily as was once thought. Perhaps the comparison with "The War of the Worlds" isn't quite so inappropriate after all.

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Unknown Story

Disappointing- No story is ever finished

WW2 commando training

The original U.S. Special Operations Unit

Behind The Lines In France With The Resistance

The Jedburghs: The Secret History of the Allied Special Forces, France 1944
Will Irwin
Manufacturer: PublicAffairs
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Binding: Hardcover

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The First Men In: US Paratroopers and the Fight to Save D-Day

ASIN: B000MKYKV8

Book Description

The first full history of the pioneering Special Forces units of World War II-dropped behind German lines into France to assist with the D-Day landings-told by a former U.S. Special Forces colonel with unique access to surviving veterans

The story of the Special Forces in World War II has never fully been told before. Information about them began to be declassified only in the 1980s. Known as the Jedburghs, these Special Forces were selected from members of the British, American, and Free French armies to be dropped in teams of three deep behind German lines. There, in preparation for D-Day, they carried out what we now know as unconventional warfare: supporting the French Resistance in guerrilla attacks, supply-route disruption, and the harassment and obstruction of German reinforcements. Always, they operated against extraordinary odds. They had to be prepared to survive pitched battles with German troops and Gestapo manhunts for weeks and months while awaiting the arrival of Allied ground forces. They were, in short, heroes.

The Jedburghs finally tells their story and offers a new perspective on D-Day itself. Will Irwin has selected seven of the Jedburgh teams and told their stories as gripping personal narratives. He has gathered archival documents, diaries and correspondence, and interviewed Jed veterans and family members in order to present this portrait of their crucial role-a role recognized by Churchill and Eisenhower-in the struggle to liberate Europe in 1944-45.

This is narrative history at its most compelling; a vivid drama of the battle for France from deep behind enemy lines.

Customer Reviews:

Unknown Story.......2007-09-23

The Jedburghs: The Secret History of the Allied Special Forces, France 1944
A really superior book which details one of the little-known stories of WWII and the Normandy Invasion. It allows us to see how many Frenchmen aided the Allies in the liberation of France. My only drawback to the book, is that the author, like many who write war books, seems to assume that we are familiar with the cities or territories. A few maps please!

Disappointing- No story is ever finished.......2007-09-05

I took a risk buying this book. I was intrigued by these secret warriors and was further intrigued reading Wild Bill Donovan's biography. Irvin seems to have done his homework and the set up was well written. My problem was every story was written from a 10,000ft and never seemed to finish. I was lost trying to keep track. Stories would start never having ended another.
Scattered thoughts on written page.

WW2 commando training.......2007-08-21

This book has some very detailed information on the recruiting and training standards for the commandos that entered France before the D-Day invasion. The selection process was very interesting along with team composition for nationalities, language skills, radio skills, and ability to adapt to active environments.

The description of the teams in France was more espionage in arming the Partisans and sabotaging German lines of communication. They had no self sustainment capability at all, they depended on the French civilians to provide them transportation, food, and shelter. They spent months preparing for the operation and once they landed, they were either chased around the countryside by the Germans or they coordinating the delivery of weapons and ammunition for the Partisans to disrupt the rear area German units.

What was extremely dangerous were the spies that operated before the Jedburgh teams. These spies acted independently for years in developing communications and Partisan cells. Once the teams arrived, the spies would then interface with the teams in introducing them to the cells.

Another interesting note was the lack of German security at night in France. It seems that they allowed very liberal movement and freedom to the French, no enforced curfews. When one of the teams landed in a farm field, the locals used fires to mark the landing zone. The German garrison at the neighboring village didn't even investigate.

The Jedburghs were well trained and successful in coordinating weapons delivery and training to the Partisans, but the Germans facilitated it by not enforcing martial law and restricting French civilian movements. Had the German rear area command been more aggressive in limiting French civilian movements, they would have limited the Partisans ability to communicate with messengers and gather large groups for offensive actions.

Overall, a different and unique perspective into the training of commandos. Extremely well researched, good book to borrow from the library.

The original U.S. Special Operations Unit.......2007-05-12

My interest in the Office of Strategic Service and subsequently the Jedburghs is the direct result of my obsession in collecting, restoring and using military communications (MilCom) equipment; especially "spy radios" of the WW-II through Viet Nam.

The Jedburghs consisted of three man teams of military personnel made up of specially trained officers and enlisted men. These teams drew from the U.S., British and Free French personnel who, after intensive training, were air dropped behind Nazi lines piror to the D-Day invasion in 1944.

Typically these Jedburgh Teams were responsible for recruiting, training, arming and organizing local resistance movements to form effective irregular (guerilla) forces which would harass the Nazi's prior to and during the initial phases of Operation Overloard, the D-Day invasion. Overall, this idea has been carried forward and the U.S. Army Special Forces (Green Berret) are direct descendents of these Jedburgh Teams.

This book takes a look at several individual Jedburgh Teams and their guerilla ctivities in occupied France. The author shows us an inside look into the workings of an early special ops force that is, quite literally, out numbered, out gunned and alone in a very hostile environment.

While this book is not the difiniative work on the special section within the OSS called "Jedburghs", it can be viewed as a well documented work that will serve to whet the appitite of anyone wanting specific knowledge of this segment of WW-II.

The author is knowledgable and has documented his text quite well. With all the hoopla regarding special operations units in the War on Terror, The Jedburghs will reveal how today's SOCOM units got their start.

Behind The Lines In France With The Resistance.......2006-05-28

All of a sudden we have several books on the Jedburghs, at least two others come to mind. One thing this author doesn't answer for me is 'why' they were named Jedburghs. He gives us enough info to realize that several explanations have been put forth, however, he is not able to settle on just one.

These 3-men teams were trained and retrained up to the very date of the D-Day landings, with some of the men taken directly from the training field to behind the lines action. The teams consisted of 3 individuals, generally 2 officers, and 1 radioman. The 3-men teams were supposed to contain two officers, either British, French, or American, and 1 radioman at Sergeant level. All were required to be experienced in the French language, and the radioman was preferred to have at least 2 year's college. The radiomen had a special radio made exclusively for the rough combat conditions expected, with all members of the 3 men team trained all areas of survival.

They were expected to stay alive on their own until the D-Day armies reached the behind the line areas into which the Jeds had been dropped. The Jeds were also expected to arm, clothe, and train all French resistance personel in their areas. One of the attributes looked for in these men was that of having an attitude, or men who looked for a scrap. And during their training this was an ongoing psychological requirement. At certain points as many as 40% of applicants were washed out. After reading this book you realize any of these men who made it, were indeed very special men.

The author is very knowledgable about these teams and offers a very readable book. Until these recent books and declassified records, not much public awareness existed concerning these 3 men teams. I enjoyed this subject so much I have another book by another author on order concerning this same subject. One serious flaw of this book: no maps. For those of us without great knowledge of France, general maps and some of the specific area dropzones would have been beneficial.

If you enjoy out of the mainstream material on WWII subjects, these books on the Jedburghs, a force of no more than 300 men, may be for you. As an ex-military man, these resilient, courageous men have my fullest admiration!

Semper Fi.

Nasty Tales: Sex, Rugs, Rock 'N Roll & Violence in the British Underground (Primal-Spinal Comix History)

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Nasty Tales: Sex, Rugs, Rock 'N Roll & Violence in the British Underground (Primal-Spinal Comix History)
David Huxley
Manufacturer: Critical Vision
ProductGroup: Book
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ASIN: 190048613X

Book Description

Though never on the scale of its American counterpart, there was indeed a comics underground in Great Britain. Many of these comics were obscure limited print run productions and few were financially successful. But with subject matter that was anarchic and sexually unrestrained, this 'political pornography' did indeed have an impact-and invariably caught the wary eye of the law, resulting in several landmark Obscenity cases.

From their origins in the 1960s, Nasty Tales covers the turbulent history of these comics and the cultural instability from which they emerged.

The Alternative Media (Culture, Representation and Identity series)

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The Alternative Media (Culture, Representation and Identity series)
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Alternative Media:

Examines how and why people produce and use alternative media - to make meaning, to interpret, and to change the world in which they live
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Alternative Media provides a timely corrective to media theorizing which focuses almost exclusively on the output of the media conglomerates. As such it will be an essential purchase for all students and researchers with an interest in the true nature of the contemporary media environment.

Deliver Us from Evil: The Radical Underground in Britain, 1660-1663

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Deliver Us from Evil: The Radical Underground in Britain, 1660-1663
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After more than two decades of unprecedented political, social, and religious upheaval, revolutionary thought and activity in Britain continued to thrive even after the restoration of the monarchy in 1660. This highly original study, which draws on the reports of both police and informers, follows the "radical underground" in England from the eve of the Restoration to the collapse of the northern rebellion in 1663. In a tale that winds its way across England and into Scotland, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Switzerland, Greaves examines how radicals remained united in their common animosity to monarchy, prelacy, taxes, and popery. Although ultimately unsuccessful, their conspiracies and rebellions nonetheless fueled the drive for the repression of Nonconformists, prompted the state to cultivate an elaborate network of informers, and heightened the concern for domestic security.

The Avant-Garde in Interwar England: Medieval Modernism and the London Underground

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The Avant-Garde in Interwar England: Medieval Modernism and the London Underground
Michael T. Saler
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
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Binding: Paperback

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Book Description

The Avant-Garde in Interwar England addresses modernism's ties to tradition, commerce, nationalism, and spirituality through an analysis of the assimilation of visual modernism in England between 1910 and 1939. During this period, a debate raged across the nation concerning the purpose of art in society. On one side were the aesthetic formalists, led by members of London's Bloomsbury Group, who thought art was autonomous from everyday life. On the other were England's so-called medieval modernists, many of them from the provincial North, who maintained that art had direct social functions and moral consequences. As Michael T. Saler demonstrates in this fascinating volume, the heated exchange between these two camps would ultimately set the terms for how modern art was perceived by the British public. Histories of English modernism have usually emphasized the seminal role played by the Bloomsbury Group in introducing, celebrating, and defining modernism, but Saler's study instead argues that, during the watershed years between the World Wars, modern art was most often understood in the terms laid out by the medieval modernists. As the name implies, these artists and intellectuals closely associated modernism with the art of the Middle Ages, building on the ideas of John Ruskin, William Morris, and other nineteenth-century romantic medievalists. In their view, modernism was a spiritual, national, and economic movement, a new and different artistic sensibility that was destined to revitalize England's culture as well as its commercial exports when applied to advertising and industrial design. This book, then, concerns the busy intersection of art, trade, and national identity in the early decades of twentieth-century England. Specifically, it explores the life and work of Frank Pick, managing director of the London Underground, whose famous patronage of modern artists, architects, and designers was guided by a desire to unite nineteenth-century arts and crafts with twentieth-century industry and mass culture. As one of the foremost adherents of medieval modernism, Pick converted London's primary public transportation system into the culminating project of the arts and crafts movement. But how should today's readers regard Pick's achievement? What can we say of the legacy of this visionary patron who sought to transform the whole of sprawling London into a post-impressionist work of art? And was medieval modernism itself a movement of pioneers or dreamers? In its bold engagement with such questions, The Avant-Garde in Interwar England will surely appeal to students of modernism, twentieth-century art, the cultural history of England, and urban history.

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Aristide: The Story of Roger Landes
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Britain and the War for Yugoslavia
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Christopher Marlowe and Richard Baines: Journeys Through the Elizabethan Underground

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Christopher Marlowe and Richard Baines: Journeys Through the Elizabethan Underground
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