This one was very full of the machinations of spying but the personal narrative didn't hold my interest. HI found it hard to connect to the main character in a meaningful, empathetic way. ( )

synopsis | André Szara travels Western Europe in his role as foreign correspondent for Pravda, very aware of regional tensions especially between the German Reich and the Soviet Union. Sporadically linked to the NKVD (Soviet intelligence) and then only as mandated by his editor or NKVD itself, he finds himself increasingly active both abroad and within the Soviet Union. Soon Szara's activities tilt more toward espionage than journalism, and despite a desire to avoid doing more than is necessary, he begins to question whether personal survival is best served by more or less involvement in the confusing groups of clandestine actors working to push their various agendas.

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Furst acknowledged in 2009 that various thematic subseries exist within his Night Soldiers works. Dark Star falls within the the first "panoramic" trilogy, featuring multiple characters like the first novel, but focusing on one primary character rather than two or three, and taking place across a narrower span of his chosen historical period, 1930-1945. Here we follow Szara from Autumn 1937 into Autumn 1940. Even so, Dark Star covers a lot of geographical ground and references many historical events, including Kristallnacht, Stalin's ongoing purges within the Soviet Union, the Wehrmacht's invasion of Poland, and the outlines of what would become Operation Barbarossa.

A key thematic focus is Furst's examination of the Jewish experience at this time. The novel is episodic perhaps in order to show the many aspects of the coming Holocaust, signs evident for those who are watching. Many borders are closed to Jews by governments officially condemning pogroms in other states, yet whose immigration policies effectively support the very practices they publicly oppose. Some Jews on various sides work together, a parallel world alongside the bloody politics the "rest of the world" attends to. Even Stalin's purges are depicted from this lens: a means for conducting another pogrom, "a gift to the serfs" a la Tsarist history. Szara's personal experience ends up emblematic of many Europeans' of the time, he was born in one country, raised in another; he serves the media of Soviet Russia while living in Western Europe; and all the while remains mindful of his Jewish origins and what that makes him in the eyes of others. ( )

Too long and meandering to be a really good read. So long, in fact, that characters disappear for many pages, then reappear in Andre's thoughts or in person and you find yourself trying to remember who they were. It's a good history lesson, however, in the major events between 1938 and 1940 in Eastern Europe, Paris, and Berlin.

This was my fourth Furst, and both this one and Night Soldiers suffer from excessive length. Also, in comparison to other spy novels based in reality (such as Le Carre), it is more a series of vignettes than having a coherent plot. ( )

I enjoyed listening to this. Szara, a Polish Jew works as a journalist and spy. I was really able to picture what happens. It goes into Kristallnacht and the Invasion of Poland. ( )

Complex, compelling. ( )