Robert Harris

A tale inspired by the infamous Dreyfus Affair finds recently promoted head of Paris's late-19th-century counterespionage agency Georges Picquart leading the effort to convict Dreyfus only to succumb to gradual doubts that a high-level spy remains at large in the military. By the best-selling author of The Fear Index.

An Officer and a Spy

Meredith Boster

This was a very intriguing book. I enjoyed it. However, no I did not enjoy it. The beginning was a little bit interesting and the middle was boring and only towards the end was my interest captivated. There were parts scattered throughout that I enjoyed or at least had a mild interest in, but those parts never continued elsewhere in the story. I do wish it were slightly easier to read because you have to pay attention to every name and that’s difficult to keep track of. Overall it was a good book and although I probably wouldn’t read it again, it was what I expected: a historical fiction novel with too many details. I would recommend this to anyone who wants a historical fiction read that’s soaked with historical details.

National Book Awards Popular Fiction Book of the Year 2013 They lied to protect their country. He told the truth to save it. A gripping historical thriller from the bestselling author of FATHERLAND. January 1895. On a freezing morning in the heart of Paris, an army officer, Georges Picquart, witnesses a convicted spy, Captain Alfred Dreyfus, being publicly humiliated in front of twenty thousand spectators baying âe~Death to the Jew!âe(tm) The officer is rewarded with promotion: Picquart is made the French armyâe(tm)s youngest colonel and put in command of âe~the Statistical Sectionâe(tm) âe" the shadowy intelligence unit that tracked down Dreyfus. The spy, meanwhile, is given a punishment of medieval cruelty: Dreyfus is shipped off to a lifetime of solitary confinement on Devilâe(tm)s Island âe" unable to speak to anyone, not even his guards, his case seems closed forever. But gradually Picquart comes to believe there is something rotten at the heart of the Statistical Section. When he discovers another German spy operating on French soil, his superiors are oddly reluctant to pursue it. Despite official warnings, Picquart persists, and soon the officer and the spy are in the same predicamentâe¦ Narrated by Picquart, An Officer and a Spy is a compelling recreation of a scandal that became the most famous miscarriage of justice in history. Compelling, too, are the echoes for our modern world: an intelligence agency gone rogue, justice corrupted in the name of national security, a newspaper witch-hunt of a persecuted minority, and the age-old instinct of those in power to cover-up their crimes.

Nooshin

I really wish I had stuck to reading the Wikipedia page of the Dreyfus Affair instead of listening to a long-winded sixteen-hour audiobook about it. This would have been immensely more intriguing as a long-form, strictly non-fictional essay, and I believe that even the new Polanski movie that was made based on this, which is in fact written for the screen by Harris himself, must be much more adequate than the book, which was overlong and just plain boring.

Lance Willett

I highly enjoyed this historically accurate fictional account of the Dreyfus affair. My first Robert Harris — thanks Jack Lenox for the recommendation — and first of many more I hope.

The narrative style and rich descriptions bring this long-controversial period in European history to beautiful light. It's a page-turner.

Liz Prinz

Simon Lund Larsen

De commandant van de Franse geheime dienst, Georges Picquart, vertelt hoe hij na de veroordeling wegens spionage van de joodse officier Alfred Dreyfus in 1895 ontdekt dat de echte spion iemand anders moet zijn geweest en dat Dreyfus dus ten onrechte een levenslange gevangenisstraf uitzit.

An Officer and a Spy

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