Kingdom of Shadows

Starred review from January 1, 2001
The desperation of "stateless" people trying to escape the Nazi redrawing of the European map in the late 1930s pervades Furst's (Night Soldiers; Red Gold, etc.) marvelous sixth espionage thriller. On a rainy night in 1938, the train from Budapest pulls into Paris bearing Nicholas Morath, a playboy Hungarian expatriate and sometime spy for his uncle, a wealthy Hungarian diplomat based in the French capital. Morath, a veteran hero of the Great War and a Parisian for many years, now finds himself forced to rely on former enemies to try to rescue Eastern European fugitives displaced by Hitler's aggression. His eclectic circle includes a Russian gangster, a pair of destitute but affable near-tramps, and a smooth-talking SS officer. Smuggling forged passports, military intelligence documents and cash through imminent war zones, Morath time and again returns in thankless triumph to the glittering salons of Paris. Furst expertly weaves Morath's apparently unconnected assignments into the web of a crucial 11th-hour international conspiracy to topple Hitler before all-out war engulfs Europe again, counterbalancing scenes of fascist-inspired chaos with the sounds, smells and anxieties of a world dancing on the edge of apocalypse. The novel is more than just a cloak-and-dagger thrill ride; it is a time machine, transporting readers directly into the dread period just before Europe plunged into its great Wagnerian g tterd mmerung. This is Furst's best book since The Polish Officer, and in it he proves himself once again a master of literary espionage.

Furst's novel of intrigue and politics centers on middle Europe in 1938 and 1939. Our protagonist is a Hungarian émigré living in Paris who is involved in the private diplomacy occurring as the prelude to WWII plays itself out. Even though we know how things will turn out, the desperate attempts by small central European nations to position themselves to survive the inevitable is a riveting story. George Guidall is, as usual, excellent. His cast is large and multilingual, and he manages the diversity superbly. Each of his major characters has a consistently distinct voice, and his reading conveys all of the emotions inherent in the story. We even understand the giddy delight of Adolf Hitler as things work out almost exactly as he hoped. A captivating reading. R.E.K. (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine