Product Description

In this sequel to the acclaimed The World at Night, reluctant spy Jean Casson returns in another haunting and atmospheric thriller set in the shadows of occupied Paris. In The World at Night, Alan Furst introduced film producer Jean Casson, who is forced by the German occupation of Paris to abandon his civilised lifestyle and falls into the world of espionage and double agents -- until he is forced to flee the country. In Red Gold, Jean Casson returns to Paris under a new identity. As a fugitive from the Gestapo, he must somehow struggle to survive in the shadows and backstreets. He is determined to stay clear of trouble, yet, as the war drags on, Casson begins, inevitably, to drift back into the dangerous world of resistance and sabotage.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #394143 in Books
• Published on: 1999-12-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Review
'Just when it looked as if Robert Harris had cornered the market in historical thrillers, along comes Alan Furst with a book that Harris could not better if he lived to be 100. Wartime Paris is beautifully evoked.' Sunday Telegraph 'Alan Furst's sequence of spy novels deserves to be as feted as Patrick O'Brian's sea stories! gloriously cinematic.' Evening Standard 'Cracking entertainment! all the cinematic flair of Casablanca.' The Times 'Brings an era to life with a feeling of authenticity that can only be described as breathtaking and wholly addictive.' The Times 'Nobody does it better. Gripping stuff related with a delicacy and economy that could trace a pattern on porcelain. Quite masterly.' Literary Review 'I can recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good spy thriller.' Mail on Sunday

About the Author
Alan Furst, who has often been compared to Graham Greene and Eric Ambler, is widely recognised as a master of the atmospheric spy thriller. It was a journalistic assignment, for Esquire magazine, that inspired him to write Night Soldiers, the first of his highly original novels about espionage in eastern and western Europe before and during World War II. Born in New York, he has lived for long periods in France, especially in Paris. 'Ideally complex, intelligent, hugely intriguing -- in the world of the espionage thriller Furst is in a class of his own.' william boyd 'Furst's ability to recreate the terrors of espionage is matchless.' robert harris

Customer Reviews

So good I'm buying all the Furst I can find
I usually read "serious" lit and very rarely "thrillers". But I was in the Stanstead Airport bookstore about to leave for holiday in Italy when I decided I needed something a little more entertaining. So I started looking at all the fiction books alphabetized by author when I came across "Red Gold" by Alan Furst. I totally judged the book by its cover-which is pretty darn cool-and the critical blurbs, one of which compared Furst with both Graham Greene, whom I love, and Patrick O'Brien, whom I've never read but have heard high praise for over his attention to detail. I also picked up a couple o' serious works, "The Innocent" by Booker winner Ian McEwan and "Last Orders," a Booker winner itself by Graham Swift.

Well, smack by snobby self, I liked "Red Gold" by a fair margin over "The Innocent" and a wide one over "Last Orders" (disappointing compared with "Waterland"). Alan Furst is no "writer" like McEwan or Swift or Graham Greene. But he knows his stylistic limits enough to stick to short, often elliptical sentences and, in so doing, is much better at evoking 1941 Paris than McEwan 1955 Berlin. A New Yorker by birth and residence, Furst spent enough years in Paris to know well his story's milieu. He conveys not merely the sights and sounds of Vichy, but also the shifting smells and tastes, temperature and humidity of the streets, bars and hotel rooms, and he blends them into a kind of sentient soundtrack that underscores the treachery, paranoia and heroism of the day.

"Red Gold" tells about Jean Casson, a former film producer and reluctant participant in the French resistance against Nazi occupation of Paris. In reading this book, I learned-though I guess I should have guessed-that the principal drivers of the resistance movement, at least in 1941, were the pro-Stalinists. Casson's compatriots include Communists, Gallists and at least one syphilitic Nazi eager to avoid the eastern front. As a result, "Red Gold" features the kind of vivid characters that make you cast the movie version in your head. And Casson himself (this is the second novel he's appeared in) is a wonderful creation, street-smart enough to be agent provocateur and book-smart enough to be a reader's perfect cicerone.

I am recommending "Red Gold" to just about everyone I know who reads. It has enough setting and character for lit lovers, enough sex, booze and violence for pulp people and enough historical interest for non-fiction nabobs. I am also buying Furst's four other paperbacks (he has a sixth book just out in hardcover)... That's America's problem--too many guns, not enough Furst.

Dark, accurate, deadly!
I always knew, in an academic kind of way, that occupied France must have been a pretty unpleasant place to be. It was only after reading "Red Gold" by Alan Furst that I realised just exactly HOW bleak it must have been.

I have to say I found "Red Gold" a bit hard going. The whole novel reeks of the despair and shattered hope that is the lot of a proud nation in defeat. It is relentlessy dark, and very atmospheric and often very depressing. All the characters are described principally in terms of their negative traits. Even the sacrifice of some of the resistance fighters is described in a self-serving light.

But then this is espionage and double-dealing and the threat of instant "liquidation", is on every page. "Red Gold" is a cracking novel that really draws you into the seedy world of espionage and underground warfare. The historical side is well done, especially the social geography. Who would have thought that a New Yorker could write so convincingly about Paris street life?

Fascinating look at wartime espionage
This isn't a genre I generally enjoy but Furst won me over with his realism in scene setting and characterisation. Peopled by ordinary people, allbeit some incredibly brave, its strengths are understated violence and a detached political awareness which capture the humanity caught up in the cogs of the German War machine in 1942 Paris. The tension between the Vichy, DeGaulle and Communist groups is as interesting as the oppressive atmosphere of the Nazi Occupation. The plot moves along remorselessly, the deaths aren't gratuitous and the relationships are not contrived so that the reader does care about the fate of the main characters. I will be reading more Furst soon.