Mission to Paris [NOOK Book]

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Overview

It is the late summer of 1938, Europe is about to explode, the Hollywood film star Fredric Stahl is on his way to Paris to make a movie for Paramount France. The Nazis know he’s coming—a secret bureau within the Reich Foreign Ministry has for years been waging political warfare against France, using bribery, intimidation, and corrupt newspapers to weaken French morale and degrade France’s will to defend herself.
 
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Mission to Paris

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Overview

It is the late summer of 1938, Europe is about to explode, the Hollywood film star Fredric Stahl is on his way to Paris to make a movie for Paramount France. The Nazis know he’s coming—a secret bureau within the Reich Foreign Ministry has for years been waging political warfare against France, using bribery, intimidation, and corrupt newspapers to weaken French morale and degrade France’s will to defend herself.
 
For their purposes, Fredric Stahl is a perfect agent of influence, and they attack him. What they don’t know is that Stahl, horrified by the Nazi war on Jews and intellectuals, has become part of an informal spy service being run out of the American embassy in Paris.
 
From Alan Furst, the bestselling author, often praised as the best spy novelist ever, comes a novel that’s truly hard to put down. Mission to Paris includes beautifully drawn scenes of romance and intimacy, and the novel is alive with extraordinary characters: the German Baroness von Reschke, a famous hostess deeply involved in Nazi clandestine operations; the assassins Herbert and Lothar; the Russian film actress and spy Olga Orlova; the Hungarian diplomat and spy, Count Janos Polanyi; along with the French cast of Stahl’s movie, German film producers, and the magnetic women in Stahl’s life, the socialite Kiki de Saint-Ange and the émigré Renate Steiner.
 
But always at the center of the novel is the city of Paris, the heart and soul of Europe—its alleys and bistros, hotels grand and anonymous, and the Parisians, living every night as though it was their last. As always, Alan Furst brings to life both a dark time in history and the passion of the human hearts that fought to survive it.

Advance praise for Mission to Paris
 
“The writing in Mission to Paris, sentence after sentence, page after page, is dazzling. If you are a John le Carré fan, this is definitely a novel for you.”—James Patterson
 
“I am a huge fan of Alan Furst. Furst is the best in the business—the most talented espionage novelist of our generation.”—Vince Flynn
 
Praise for Alan Furst
 
“Unfolds like a vivid dream . . . One couldn’t ask for a more engrossing novel.”—The Wall Street Journal, about Spies of the Balkans
 
“Though set in a specific place and time, Furst’s books are like Chopin’s nocturnes: timeless, transcendent, universal. One does not so much read them as fall under their spell.”—Los Angeles Times, about The Spies of Warsaw
 
“Alan Furst’s novels swing a beam into the shadows at the edges of the great events leading to World War II. Readers come knowing he’ll deliver effortless narrative.”—USA Today, about The Foreign Correspondent
 
“Positively bristles with plot, characters and atmosphere . . . Dark Voyage has the ingredients of several genres—the mystery, the historical novel, the espionage thriller, the romance—but it rises above all of them.”—The Washington Post, about Dark Voyage
 
“No other espionage writer touches [Furst’s] stylish forays into Budapest and Berlin, Moscow and Paris. No other writer today captures so well the terror and absurdity of the spy, the shabby tension and ennui of émigré communities at the time. His characters are hopeless, lethal, charming. His voice is, above all, knowing.”—Boston Sunday Globe, about Blood of Victory

From the Hardcover edition.

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  • Mission to Paris
    Mission to Paris  

Editorial Reviews

From Barnes & Noble

Even before Frederick Stahl arrives in pre-World War II Paris, he knows that he will be watched. This Hollywood actor is, after all, an international star who is making a film in a foreign country, not an everyday occurrence. But not all the people who are watching Stahl are movie buffs; German agents and French fascists pay close, furtive attention to alien influences that might affect their interests. Little do they know at first that Stahl harbors his own secrets: Appalled by recent European developments, he has thrown his lot into a clandestine group of anti-Nazi spies. Once again, Alan Furst demonstrates that he is a spy novelist worthy of comparison to John Le Carré. Now in trade paperback and NOOK Book.

The Washington Post
In the noble tradition of historical spy fiction that educates as it entertains, Mission to Paris clues readers into the propaganda warfare that the Nazis and their right-wing French sympathizers waged in France, long before conquering tanks rolled down the Champs-Elysees.
—Maureen Corrigan
The New York Times Book Review
Mission to Paris is the 12th of [Furst's] enormously successful historical spy novels, and one of the best…Furst is a skillful storyteller, writing in two- or three-page scenes that instill a sense of movement and energy in an otherwise loosely episodic plot…Furst writes profoundly realistic books. The brilliant historical flourishes seem to create—or recreate—a world. Because they take place in a desperate time, his plots dig down to human essentials: money, shelter, food and, even as Stahl swivels between women like an uncertain compass, love.
—Max Byrd
Publishers Weekly
Alan Furst’s writing reminds me of a swim in perfect water on a perfect day, fluid and exquisite. One wants the feeling to go on forever, the book to never end. Such is it with this historical spy novel. From September 1938 to January 1939, the reader vividly lives through Paris’s last stormy breaths of freedom before Germany’s attack in 1940. Our unlikely hero is Frederick Stahl, 40, a handsome American movie star, not an action figure but everyone’s favorite silver screen doctor or uncle or romantic leading man. Warner Bros. loans Stahl out to make a picture in Paris. He likes Paris, and he likes keeping Jack Warner happy. But there’s a little known fact in his past that the Nazis can make much of—born in Vienna, Stahl worked as a gopher for the Austrian legation in Barcelona at the end of WWI, and Austria had been an ally of Germany. So when officials in Germany’s political warfare department discover Stahl will be in their sphere of influence, they alert their Paris section to put him on “the list” to be used. From movie studios to embassies, from parties with the untouchably wealthy to a sexy love affair with a sophisticated émigré living in a tenement, Stahl finds himself caught between those who believe France must rearm to fight Germany, and those who are desperate for a negotiated peace. When Stahl refuses to support “peace,” the Nazi threats begin. To retaliate, he becomes a secret U.S. courier, bravely carrying hundreds of thousands of Swiss francs into Germany and Morocco to exchange for intelligence about the Nazis. Reading Furst is the next best thing to having been in Berlin: “Uniforms everywhere.... This country was already at war, though enemy forces had yet to appear, and Stahl could sense an almost palpable violence that hung above the city like a mist.” Like Graham Greene, Furst creates believable characters caught up, with varying degrees of willingness, in the parade of political life. And because they care, the reader does, too. And like Lee Child, Furst captures personality with insightful brush strokes: Stahl’s father had “a face like an angry prune.” Long on an ability to translate good research into great reading, Furst has only two downsides: although threats escalate, little comes of them, and when Stahl takes risks, they tend to deflate. For example, Stahl insists he’s honor-bound to pursue the Nazis who’ve stolen the film crew’s cameras, but he ends up waiting in a rowboat with a gun while others do the dangerous work offstage. And when the woman he loves is held in Budapest for interrogation, Stahl’s solution is to use his box-office status to get her a visa at the U.S. embassy, then phones the William Morris Agency in hopes his agent can come up with an exit strategy. Still, my complaints are minor compared to the breadth and realized ambition of this seductive novel. Furst is one of the finest spy novelists working today, and, from boudoir to the beach, Mission to Paris is perfect summer reading. Agent: Amanda Urban, ICM. (June) Gayle Lynds, the cofounder with David Morrell of International Thriller Writers and ThrillerFest, is the author of The Book of Spies (St. Martin’s, 2010).
From the Publisher
“This is the romantic Paris to make a tourist weep … The brilliant historical flourishes seem to create – or recreate – a world … In Furst’s densely populated books, hundred of minor characters – clerks, chauffeurs, soldiers, whores – all whirl around his heroes in perfect focus for a page or two, then dot by dot, face by face, they vanish, leaving a heartbreaking sense of the vast Homeric epic that was World War II and the smallness of almost every life that was caught up in it.”
—The New York Times Book Review

“Alan Furst again shows why he is a grandmaster of the historical espionage genre. Furst not only vividly re-creates the excitement and growing gloom of the City of Light in 1938-39, as war with Nazi Germany looms, but also demonstrates a profound knowledge of the political divisions and cultural sensibilities of that bygone era … As summer or subway reading goes, it doesn't get more action-packed and grippingly atmospheric than this.”
—The Boston Globe

“Between them, Fredric and Paris make this a book no reader will put down to the final page. Furst evokes the city and the prewar anxiety with exquisite tension that is only a bit relieved by Fredric’s encounters with several women, each a vivid and attractive character. Critics compare Furst to Graham Greene and John le Carré, but the time has come for this much-published author (this is his ninth World War II novel after Spies of the Balkans) to occupy his own pinnacle as a master of historical espionage.”
—Library Journal (starred)

“Furst conveys a strong sense of the era, when responding to a knock might open the door to the end of one’s days. The novel recalls a time when black and white applied to both movies and moral choices. It’s a tale with wide appeal.”
—Kirkus (starred)

“[Furst] is most at home in Paris, which is why legions of his fans, upon seeing only the title of his latest book, will immediately feel pulses quicken … Furst has been doing this and doing it superbly for a long time now … Long ago Furst made the jump from genre favorite to mainstream bestsellerdom; returning to his signature setting, Paris, he only stands to climb higher.”
—Booklist (starred)
 
“Alan Furst’s writing reminds me of a swim in perfect water on a perfect day, fluid and exquisite. One wants the feeling to go on forever, the book to never end … Like Graham Greene, Furst creates believable characters caught up, with varying degrees of willingness, in the parade of political life. And because they care, the reader does, too … Furst is one of the finest spy novelists working today, and, from boudoir to the beach, Mission to Paris is perfect summer reading.”
—Publisher’s Weekly
 
“The writing in Mission to Paris, sentence after sentence, page after page, is dazzling. If you are a John le Carré fan, this is definitely a novel for you.”
—James Patterson
 
"I am a huge fan of Alan Furst. Furst is the best in the business—the most talented espionage novelist of our generation."
—Vince Flynn

“Reading Mission to Paris is like sipping a fine Chateau Margaux: Sublime!”
—Erik Larson
Library Journal
Fredric Stahl, a successful Hollywood actor with a Viennese bloodline, returns to Paris to make a movie for a big studio. The German Reich's publicity machine works to steer him into the anti-war French camp, and he hobnobs with champagne magnates and German elites to enjoy the high life of 1938 Paris. Like every Furst hero, though, Fredric has a conscience, so he begins his own anti-Hitler campaign in the quiet ways familiar to Furst's legions of fans. VERDICT Between them, Fredric and Paris make this a book no reader will put down until the final page. Furst evokes the city and the prewar anxiety with exquisite tension that is only a bit relieved by Fredric's encounters with several women, each a vivid and attractive character. Critics compare Furst to Graham Greene and John le Carré, but the time has come for this much-published author (this is his ninth World War II novel after Spies of the Balkans) to occupy his own pinnacle as a master of historical espionage. [See Prepub Alert, 12/12/11.]—Barbara Conaty, Falls Church, VA
Kirkus Reviews
A historical spy novel that takes the reader back to the 1930s, when Europe hurtled toward the abyss. The dashing Austrian-born actor Frederic Stahl returns to France from Hollywood to film the movie Après la Guerre. On loan from Warner Bros., he'll star as a soldier who survives The Great War and personifies its futility. All Stahl wants is to do his job on the movie set, have a pleasant dalliance or three and return to the States. But the Nazis have other ideas. Germany's goal in the '30s is to weaken France's will to fight. Germans infiltrate French society; citizens of both countries form alliances for peace while Germany quietly gathers all the intelligence it can about French military preparedness. Wouldn't Frederic Stahl like to come back to Austria to judge a movie competition? One day, good pay, and he'd be in the limelight promoting both German filmmaking and the Reich itself. Repulsed, Stahl declines. Nazis increasingly pressure him to reconsider until his life is in danger. How can he finish the movie and return--no, escape--to America? Furst doesn't make it easy on his hero, spinning strand on strand in a web of tension that's big enough to hold a lot of victims. Will the web snare Stahl and his lover? The seductive Soviet spy? The resentful waiter? The Hungarian count? No one is safe, but readers will care about all the characters, whether wanting them to survive or die. They all either live under the cloud of doom that gathers over Europe, or they are part of the cloud. Furst conveys a strong sense of the era, when responding to a knock might open the door to the end of one's days. The novel recalls a time when black and white applied to both movies and moral choices. It's a tale with wide appeal.
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780679604228
  • Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
  • Publication date: 6/12/2012
  • Sold by: Random House
  • Format: eBook
  • Pages: 272
  • Sales rank: 15,555
  • File size: 3 MB

Meet the Author

Alan Furst
Alan Furst is widely recognized as the master of the historical spy novel. Now translated into eighteen languages, he is the author of Night Soldiers, Dark Star, The Polish Officer, The World at Night, Red Gold, Kingdom of Shadows, Blood of Victory, Dark Voyage, The Foreign Correspondent, The Spies of Warsaw, and Spies of the Balkans. Born in New York, he lived for many years in Paris, and now lives on Long Island.

From the Hardcover edition.

Biography

Alan Furst may have the narrowest purview in literature. His books – which he calls historical espionage novels -- are all set in Europe between 1933 and 1945, and all are stories of World War II intrigue.

But that brief eight-year period in history has given Furst a rich amount of source material; although he had published a handful of earlier novels (now out of print, some of them fetch hundreds of dollars) Furst hit his stride with 1988’s Night Soldiers , his first book to concentrate on the decade that would forever change the world. Furst had found his niche. As Salon rhapsodized in a 2001 review, "...to talk about one of his books is to talk about them all. He is writing one large book in which each new entry adds a piece to the mosaic of Europe in the years leading up to the war, as created by a partisan of the senses."

Furst's books are grounded in their author’s extensive research of the period, and are written in an almost newsy prose broken occasionally by beautiful, lyrical passages describing, say, a Paris morning in the 1940s, or night at the Czechoslavakian-Hungarian border. History buffs will find much to love here; while the books are fiction, some of the details are factual. In Night Soldiers, for example, immigrants arriving at Ellis Island exchanged their clothing for new outfits; in reality, the American government often bought clothing from immigrants to use as costumes for its spies.

And while Furst’s novels are entertaining and, often, elegant, they are not easy reads: the books traverse through a wide swath of Europe (an important character itself in Furst’s fiction), and characters duck behind corners and sometimes stumble into the continent’s more remote regions (while not partying in Paris, that is). Though his male protagonists manage to find and sometimes lose lovers, Furst’s books are primarily concerned with the moral slipperiness involved in fighting off Hitler's advance, where even the best intentions could produce regrettable results.

Furst's books have grown leaner and tauter over the years, the result of a conscious effort "to say more by saying less." Notwithstanding this paring back, or perhaps because of it, the praise for his books only seems to multiply, and Furst’s writing has lost none of its veracity or suspense. Furst, who many critics consider literature’s best-kept secret, may not be a household name yet, but with such buzz, his low profile won’t last much longer.

Good To Know

Night Soldiers originated from a piece Furst wrote for Esquire in 1983. He was also a reporter for the International Herald Tribune and wrote a biography of cookie entrepeneur Debbie Fields.

Furst wrote in a 2002 essay, "For me, Anthony Powell is a religion. I read A Dance to the Music of Time every few years."

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    1. Hometown:
      Sag Harbor, New York
    1. Education:
      B.A., Oberlin College

Customer Reviews

Average Rating 3.5
( 36 )
Rating Distribution

5 Star

(9)

4 Star

(10)

3 Star

(9)

2 Star

(3)

1 Star

(5)

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See All Sort by: Showing 1 – 20 of 36 Customer Reviews

  • Posted May 16, 2012

    If you like real life experience - not James Bond - check it out

    Alan Furst is one of the few authors I have found who writes well enough to keep your interest without resorting to central characters with super powers. When a character is severely injured in a motorcycle accident and fully recuperates in a few weeks with no ongoing problems, the story loses credibility and I can't relate to the hero/heroine. Alan Furst can keep you coming back without resorting to such techniques. I, for one, would like to see more authors create down-to-earth characters that I can relate to.

    11 out of 17 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted July 4, 2012

    more from this reviewer

    It's so annoying to see reviews from people who have not even re

    It's so annoying to see reviews from people who have not even read the book. I did, so here's my review:
    This very short novel does not get off the ground until after page 100. Until that, it is a huge snooze fest. And once it does get off the ground, it hardly keeps one wide awake. I have seen the remark that Furst is the best spy novel writer. Hogwash! This book barely qualifies as a book, and one can skip it and not have their life diminished one iota. Nothing of any real interest happens, and the ending is just dull. I have been reading Philip Kerr's Berlin novels in the same time period, and he writes circles around Furst. Perhaps Kerr could help Furst out on his next novel.

    7 out of 13 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted June 18, 2012

    Alan Furst's earlier pre World War II espionage novels evoke ol

    Alan Furst's earlier pre World War II espionage novels evoke old black and white snapshots of a duplicitous Europe just before World War II. Furst is often compared to Le Carre. For me, Furst's ability to create the tone and a mood while providing historical fact outshine La Carre. " Mission to Paris" is Furst's newest novel in this genre, but it is not his best. Like his other books, the hero, an American film star, is a decent man caught up in Nazi intrigue in prewar Paris. Maybe it's the hero, fresh from limited Hollywood success, which makes "Mission to Paris" seem more like a glossy technicolor film than Furst's earlier smokey, mood novels. Frederic Stahl never seems to struggle with good versus evil, a "gentleman's treason". Or it could be too many details about film making in the story, but everything is just too slick, too commerical and even bordering on the mundane in this latest effort. It has been anounced that BBC is making a TV series from one of Furst's earlier books. Maybe the author is understandably intrigued by the process. Whatever the cause, there are still flashes of Furst's earlier craft in writing haunting sentences full of sensory illusions, but most of the novel seems pretty uninspired. Don't get me wrong. Alan Furst is still my favorite living author and while "Mission to Paris" is a good read, it was a disappointment. I can't wait for the 2014 Furst novel to be published.

    5 out of 6 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted June 22, 2012

    Alan Furst's novels all effectively convey just how desperate th

    Alan Furst's novels all effectively convey just how desperate things were in continental Europe of 1937-40. Mission to Paris is a switch from the Eastern European characters who know well the likelihood of impending disaster.

    We see Paris through the eyes of Frederich Stahl, an internationally acclaimed Warner Brothers American actor. Stahl, himself an Austrian emigre, is sent there to make a movie. The anemic American preparedness is brought out through the actor's suspicions of just why Jack Warner insisted he go to Paris to make a French movie. Those suspicions are confirmed through Stahl's contacts with an lone American diplomat who asks Stahl to assist him in spying on Nazi infiltration in pre-war France. I knew large numbers of French collaborated with the Nazis during the occupation. The novel brings forth in vivid detail the extent of right wing French sympathy and assistance to Germany that made the defeat of France in 1940 inevitable.

    The principal characters of Furst's novels are all thoroughly decent men caught in desperate circumstances that became routine after World War II began. Unlike many of Furst's other novels, Stahl is an American who can choose to avoid the danger. He also has powerful friends to assist him, which is a refreshing departure from many of the helpless characters of Furst's other novels. I believe this is Alan Furst's best novel. I hope he will continue Mission to Paris' focus on Americans or British who actually have a choice in the pre-World War II events in which they become embroiled.

    3 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted June 12, 2012

    I haven't read this book, but it sounds like one I'd like to, an

    I haven't read this book, but it sounds like one I'd like to, and I probably will. It really irritates me that someone who hasn't even read this book will rate it 1 star. I rely on reviews to decide on whether to buy a book and immature reviewers should be censored in some way.

    2 out of 22 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted January 18, 2013

    entertaining read

    like all of Furst's novels, this one gives you an excellent feel for Europe between the wars. While not as fine as a few of his other books, it is certainly worth reading.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted January 1, 2013

    The book to me has characters that you end up caring for. For in

    The book to me has characters that you end up caring for. For instance I really liked Stahl and Orlova. To me the ending was very anticlimactic and dull and at no point was my heart racing. I love everything WWII and Europe so I wouldn't call it a total waste of time but a disappointment and definitely not worth 14 bucks.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted October 22, 2012

    Not his best but still worth a read.

    Lots of ties to previous works and his usual brilliant sense of mood make this an enjoyable read. Perhaps a thinner slice of "near history" than earlier novels but, perhaps befitting the Hollywood connection, still quite intertaining if somewhat implausible.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted September 17, 2012

    Disappointing

    The premise is intriguing, but the plot simple lacks any dramatic tension in all aspects: the Nazis make annoying, mildly threatening phone calls, relationships, romantic and otherwise come and go without import or meaning. Then everybody goes back to Hollywood!?

    This is my first and last Furst...

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted July 26, 2012

    I had a difficult time getting through the first hundred pages a

    I had a difficult time getting through the first hundred pages and finally put it down, never to pick it up again. I would think twice about reading another book by this author.

    1 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted September 5, 2012

    Large story, well told. Book's reader lacking.

    This book is for the reader interested in drama, romance, adventure, and espionage. It is set in Paris, France just prior to the start of World War II. Alan Furst has done his homework about Germany's infiltration into France's societal matrix prior to World War II, softening France for invasion and conquest. I enjoyed his characters, which were well developed. It is a larger story than I sometimes read. The narrator's voice lacked warmth and interest, a better choice should have been made, IMO. Still, the story was enough to carry my interest. As with most such novels, the pace picks up as the end nears. I might read other books by Furst, but not if the same reader is chosen. Book clubs might enjoy this book for discussions, especially if the presenter was well versed in this book's setting and time period.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted August 18, 2012

    Don't Buy...

    This is my first Alan Furst novel, and I can firmly say that it will be my last. As another reviewer commented, I too had a difficult time getting through the first 100 pages. I thought about abandoning the book on several occassions. There really wasn't a climax and the loose ends that you keep hoping will be tied up, never are. Very dissapointing read.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted July 24, 2012

    Rirterwebpen

    Mom dadthadus verom

    0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted July 21, 2012

    The first book I've read written by Furst. I'm headed back to b

    The first book I've read written by Furst. I'm headed back to buy some of his earlier novels. Very easy read with a plot that made it hard to put down. My faves are James Ellroy, Lawrence Block and Harry Turtledove. Furst could get into that group after I read some more of his novels.

    0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted July 20, 2012

    Further Downhill

    Right before this book I got around to reading Alan Fursts' first boo: Night Soldiers. I think it may be his best. His sense of place and richness of characterization reminded me of Greene and Ambler. This book, however, is the opposite in almost every way. This is a book that should not have been published (his novel before this one also weak) and one that suggests the author is far removed now from first rate work.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted July 16, 2012

    Creamkit

    Lets out her fisrt meow. Thank you vety very much! She hwarx a silky vocie come from her mouth.

    0 out of 5 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted June 27, 2012

    Like a movie in Black & White

    this book brings back the look of Casablanca and the mood as well. Good fast read with a character to dream over.

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  • Posted June 24, 2012

    So, so....

    I thought the plot was interesting and all, and of course the setting being Paris and a few other places in Europe was well presented. A good example of not getting involved in the spying business, if you're not a spy. The main character (Fredric Stahl) was likeable enough and certainly had his hands full once he got sidetracked from making a movie and spying on the Germans. I thought the ending was a bit abrupt, or hurried by the author. There was no closure regarding some of the characters mentioned who played a major role in the story, like Olga Orlova.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted May 28, 2012

    No text was provided for this review.

  • Anonymous

    Posted August 24, 2012

    No text was provided for this review.

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