The Foreign Correspondent (2007) - Plot & Excerpts
The Foreign Correspondent opens with an assassination. The reader sees it unfold through the eyes of its mastermind: a shadowy figure seated at the back of a luxury sedan, the silver medal of the Italian Fascist Party pinned to his lapel. With icy satisfaction he watches his victim enter a Paris hotel on a rainy evening in 1938, where a gunman bearing a silencer-tipped Beretta is waiting. Yet there is no mystery to this murder. It is intended as a direct, chilling message to the community of Italian intellectuals who fled Mussolini’s Italy: shut up or else…This is Alan Furst’s ninth novel in a genre that could be described as literary historical espionage. As with his earlier books, The Foreign Correspondent takes place in Europe as it slides inexorably toward the Second World War. Carlo Weisz is the title character, an Italian newspaper reporter whose career was derailed when the fascists tightened control of the press. He eventually joins other political émigrés in Paris, where he finds work as a Reuters correspondent. His assignments take him from the battlefields of the Spanish Civil War to Hitler’s Berlin, crossing a continent where democracy is gradually being extinguished. But Weisz retains a deep affection for his homeland. Using a pseudonym, he has been writing for Liberazione, an underground newspaper that “kicked like a mule” against the Italian government. It takes the efforts of a network of defiant anti-fascists—truck drivers, train conductors, even schoolgirls—to smuggle it back to Italy. As the story begins, Weisz finds himself inching across a treacherous tightrope. Can he and his colleagues continue to produce Liberazione after its editor is gunned down by Mussolini’s agents? There are more quandaries. Weisz begins to receive overtures from other clandestine organizations, including the British Secret Intelligence Service. He realizes that “…spies and journalists were fated to go through life together, and it was sometimes hard to tell one from the other.” As the stakes become higher, and personal, he is drawn more deeply into the risky war of ideas that raged long before the shooting started in September 1939. Furst’s style is spare, elegant, and evocative. The narrative is fast-paced and suspenseful, though there are few chase scenes and very little gunplay. Furst perfectly captures the undercurrent of ambiguity and suspicion that permeates Carlo Weisz’s existence. He masterfully weaves together this tension with the menace of the impending war, and adds to it romantic images—crowded cafes, softly-lit restaurants—of Parisian life. The effect is spellbinding.This is a wonderfully detailed story, combining first-rate entertainment with the kind of history lesson that is rarely found in a classroom. Vividly-imagined characters bring to life the struggles of people who resisted fascism through daily, anonymous acts of bravery. For them, and Carlo Weisz, each word of truth was a vital weapon in the war against totalitarianism. Thanks to Alan Furst, 21st century readers are granted an intriguing glimpse into the hearts of these secret soldiers.
I picked this book up because I was so taken with the first Furst book I read, "The Spies of Warsaw." Also, Furst is considered a master of the historical spy novel, and he is writing about the time period I am writing about. More or less. So why not sit back and watch a master at work?I found "The Foreign Correspondent" to be slightly disappointing, particularly when held up to "Warsaw."The problem I think I had with this novel was that we never really got to know enough about the main character. Which sounds funny - his name literally appears on every single page - but still, there was something distant about the way Furst presented him to us. As a result, there didn't seem to be as much at stake for him - though obviously a journalist who dabbles in spycraft on the eve of WWII could certainly lose his head for it. It was just that I had a hard time caring about him. I kept feeling like there was going to be another character introduced who would be our protaganist. But, no, it was Weisz. And then we are eventually introduced to a past love interest who motivates the second half of the novel. But wait, what about her is so special? Nothing that I can see. And she appears so late in the story - is in and out again (no pun intended) - she wasn't enough for me to see Weisz take the risks he did, and since she wasn't worth it, I had a hard time empathizing with him.Furst does a more capitivating job for me in bringing secondary and teritiary characters to life: the resistors in Italy, the drunken Greek sailors, the Nazi propaganda ministers, the British spymaster, and certainly the Genoan black marketeers - though all their parts are much smaller, I felt a greater connection with them than I did with Carlo Weisz.I still am a huge Alan Furst fan - I just think the story of Carlo Weisz might have been a bit of a misfire. I have more of his novels in the queue and I look forward to reading them. If you are a fan of WWII spy novels, I recommend Mr. Furst to you, though perhaps not this one, but rather "The Spies of Warsaw."
What do You think about The Foreign Correspondent (2007)?
Carlo Weitz is an Italian journalist, working for Reuters, living in Paris, pre WWII. He has left Italy because of the rise of Mussolini and Fascism.Like all of Alan Furst's protagonists, Carlo is charming, successful and romantic. The romantic interest is a woman in Berlin.I love Alan Furst's books, sometimes better to listen to than read, as he writes beautifully; his descriptions just flow and he creates a lovely mood. I was, however, disappointed in this book, it just didn't seem to go anywhere. Really, very little happens, I could sum it up in a sentence, but I won't, because of spoilers.
—Pat Haber
La vita che scivola giorno dopo giorno non è più la stessa per chi decide che il mondo non gira nel verso giusto. 1938: Carlo Weisz è uno stimato giornalista, che vive a Parigi e viaggia in tutta l'Europa per coprire i principali avvenimenti come inviato per conto di un'importante testata inglese e che non perde occasione per essere a Berlino e incontrarsi con l'amante tedesca moglie di un alto ufficiale dell'esercito di Hitler. Apparentemente, tutto meno che un eroe. Ma Carlo Weisz è anche un rifugiato italiano impegnato in una strenua opposizione al fascismo e per questo motivo inseguito dai sicari dell'OVRA e corteggiato dai servizi segreti alleati. E sarà proprio lui l'incaricato di una missione difficilissima che sta cuore al servizio segreto britannico. Una missione che accetterà solo in cambio di una promessa altrettanto difficile da mantenere. Alan Furst ancora una volta ci porta a spasso per l'Europa cupa dei tardi anni '30 in compagnia di un altro oscuro soldato dell'esercito senza divisa e mostrine che combatterà la guerra sotterranea contro il nazifascismo. E ancora una volta con la maestria e l'accuratezza di sempre intreccia la sua storia con il racconto della vita quotidiana, delle paure e delle speranze degli uomini che si sono trovati a vivere il periodo più duro del secolo passato.
—Massimo
A nice solid Furst novel. I took a small pause from reading Furst because his books had started to all be blending in together (maybe by design), but 'The Foreign Correspondent' was like a well-timed nosh. The story was tight and well-paced, there was an interesting memoir-within-a-novel that worked rather well since the protagonist in the novel was the ghost-writer of the memoir. Anyway, not on my top-shelf of Furst's novels, but it was a good Night Soldier's addition that focused on the period of 1938-1939 when Italy (under Il Duce) formally aligned with Hitler's Germany while also bringing back a lot of Furst's crossover characters in small appearances (as well as the perpetually cameoed Brasserie Heininger).
—Darwin8u
