by Alan Furst
First published 2010
Bulgaria, 1934. Fascists murder a young man in cold blood. His brother Khristo Stoianev watches his world collapse. The NKVD recruits him into Soviet intelligence and ships him to Spain's brutal civil war. Khristo serves Moscow's agenda until a warning reaches him. Stalin's purges are coming for him next. He runs to Paris just as Europe slides toward catastrophe. Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia battle for control of Eastern Europe. The French capital still glitters with desperate parties in 1937, but war approaches fast. Khristo must navigate between deadly enemies while the continent burns around him. By 1944, he joins French resistance fighters in guerrilla operations against the occupation. This sweeping novel captures eleven years of European upheaval through one man's struggle to survive the forces that would destroy him.
Genres: historical-fiction, 20th-century, war, military-fiction, espionage, political-thriller
Vibes: dark, emotional, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family, survival
Setting: Bulgaria, Eastern Europe, Paris, Spain
Period: 1934, 1937, 1944
544 pages · Paperback · OLIVIER
Content warnings: death, violence