Foreign Correspondent

By: Alan Furst

Narrated by: George Guidall

2007 Audie Award Finalist for Thriller/Suspense

Another excellent story

Love Alan Furst stories. The narrator sets the mood perfectly at just the right tempo.

One of the best in the series so far

I first read about the Night Soldier series and Furst through a list of "Best spy novels" or some such. On the list was a book in the middle of the series, perhaps this one. But I saw the first book was free and now I'm at book ten.

Furst's style has varied some over the series but in general it's a bit like Le Carre, and I'm always looking for more like Carre whom I adore.

George Guidal narrates the series including this one and then another narrator, equally good, takes over.

This one is about a group of Italian ex-pats in Paris. They publish an anti fascist underground newspaper. Many problems ensue. It gets pretty tense at times and we're being manipulated quite a bit by Furst, in a good way.

As with the other books, characters from before make appearances and a cameo in the last book becomes a main character here.

I recommend the whole series and not least this one.

Best ww2 origin fiction.

Wonderful characters. Realistic circumstances. Sexy women. Seemingly powerless people fighting fascist nationalism. A lot like 2017.

Step into a world we would never know otherwise.

Alan Furst writes a slice of life in prewar France, Germany and Italy in the first half of 1939. A well-travelled Italian journalist, a German heiress in Berlin, and a group of immigrants in Paris who publish an underground newspaper, conspire to defeat the Fascists no matter the risk. They don't know what's coming, but we do. This book is like watching an old film noir spy movie. The narration is George Guidall at his best but, well, he's always at his best.

One of the best of a great series

If you could sum up Foreign Correspondent in three words, what would they be?

All Time Great!

What other book might you compare Foreign Correspondent to and why?

The other eight in Alan Furst's first nine in the series that were narrated by George Guidall.

Have you listened to any of George Guidall’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Many, many times over the years. Been a recorded book listener for almost 20 years. George Guidall is one of the all time great narrators and I consider his performance of the Furst's novels to be a highlight of his career. I've actually read a couple of the Furst novels in this series and they rate a 4. George elevates them to a 6. It saddens me that he stopped narrating Furst's novels. The subsequent recorded novels were, at best, a 2. A case, that is all too common, of the narrator ruining the novel.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

A story of real resistance spies in World War II. They were scared, tired and bored most of the time.

Any additional comments?

The saddest part of the book and narration is "The End"I've listened to all the first 9 novels in the series at least 3 times and a few like "The Foreign Correspondent" 5 times.