Alan Furst

In September 1939, as German forces ravage Poland, Captain Alexander de Milja, a Polish intelligence officer with the resistance underground, risks his life in the treacherous world of global espionage to help his country. Reader's Guide included. Reprint. 30,000 first printing.

A Novel

The Polish Officer

The story of Polish officer Captain Alexander De Milja, who is recruited into the Polish secret service just before the Germans overrun Warsaw. As the war progresses, De Milja is involved in a number of missions against the Germans, constantly risking his own life for the sake of a free Europe.

Bryan Alexander

Another good example of "historical spy thriller".
Furst takes the title character on a tour of war-torn Europe from 1939 'til about 1942, from the fall of Poland to the Nazi-Soviet war.
Our point of view character is quiet yet effective, a good narrative place for the reader to lodge.
Furst excels at one-off small portraits of many minor characters we briefly meet.

September, 1939. The invading German Wehrmacht blazes a trail of destruction across Poland. Warsaw is surrounded. France and Britain declare war, but do nothing to help. And a Polish resistance movement takes shape under the shadow of occupation, enlisting those willing to risk death in the struggle for their nation's survival. Among them is Captain Alexander de Milja, an officer in the Polish military intelligence service, a cartographer who now must learn a dangerous new role: spymaster in the anti-Nazi underground. Beginning with a daring operation to smuggle the Polish National Gold Reserve to the government in exile, he slips into the shadowy and treacherous front lines of espionage that span occupied Europe; he moves through Poland, France, and the Ukraine, changing identities and staying one step ahead of capture. In Warsaw, he engineers a subversive campaign to strengthen the people's will to resist. In Paris, he poses as a Russian poet, then as a Slovakian coal merchant, drinking champagne in black-market bistros with Nazis while uncovering information about German battle plans. And a love affair with a woman of the French resistance leads him to make the greatest decision of his life.

Carroll Lachnit

Jan Jackson

Celia Street

In September 1939, as German forces ravage Poland, Captain Alexander de Milja, a Polish intelligence officer with the resistance underground, risks his life in the treacherous world of global espionage to help his country. 20,000 first printing.

The Polish Officer A Novel

Reviews

Highlights