LJ Talks to Alan Furst

Mike Rogers -- Library Journal, 5/2/2006

Alan Furst’s ninth World War II espionage novel, The Foreign Correspondent, debuts this June from Random House. Furst exposes unusual facets of the war, and unlike most espionage stories, his spies often are civilians who simply fall into the role rather than train for it. Last week’s LJXpress included a rave review of the book, so LJX editor Mike Rogers tracked the author down in Paris for a chat.

LJ: The Foreign Correspondent unfurls the use of underground newspapers to fight Italian fascism. Tell us more about that aspect of the war.

AF: All the dark propaganda during World War II and in the 1930s came from psychological warfare operations run by the intelligence services or the military. In one of the books I read it translated from the Italian as ‘underground newspapers,’ and I’m thinking, yeah, like the East Village Other in the 1960s. I was amazed. I’d never heard of them before. World War II’s not one war, it’s many wars, and one of the micro wars was between Italian intellectuals, who are a tough crowd, and Mussolini, who was no stupid man, he wrote a book and was a journalist.

How did you get clued into the story?

I just ran across it somewhere. Like everything I’ve ever written, the main story has been something I happened on. But I know when it happens. I can feel it. My reading is so exotic and eccentric, I read so much, I’m a Hoover, I never stop. This is pleasure for me. I’m not entirely sure what that says about my mental condition. I cannot resist this kind of material. I read about Italian liberals called Justice and Liberty (Giustizia e Liertá or the giellisti), and I started to do research about Italy.

Along with the cloak and dagger, the book also functions as a romance. Why include that element?

If you’re writing something that’s a lot like genre fiction, that’s always part of it. But there’s a reason that it’s part of it, as I’ve found over time. It’s not just like adding salt to a stew, it’s quite a bit more than that. What seems to happen in times of great stress is that relations between lovers are enormously intensified. If you listen to the music of the 1940s, it says everything you need to know about that. That’s the way love felt to people, it felt like Glen Miller. The other thing is especially among women, people felt they might not live a long time, so if they wanted something, if something was a good thing they thought they better do it tonight because tomorrow might not come. That really conditions all romantic relations and makes them right to put in books.

Although the 20th century’s greatest horror looms darkly on the horizon, the book has an upbeat ending. Is hope against all odds a theme of your work?

With one exception, my books don’t end with people safe in bed in America. At the end of this book, yes, Christa von Shirren has gotten out of Germany and gotten to Paris, and there she is at the hotel with Carlo Weisz. They have less than a year until the Germans invade France. I like to think that given Weisz’s ingenuity and that he’s a pretty tough guy, they would survive. There’s also a chance that since he’s been involved with British Intelligence services they might want him for their purposes and save his life. But you don’t know that. My feeling about these characters is that they’re alright for the moment, and I like to think they survived the war. Do I know they do, no. In life you do have good moments, and I like to end books on those moments.

Many fans are anxious for film versions of your books. Has Hollywood come knocking yet?

I have one book—The World at Night—that’s been sold to film, although it’s not been made into a film, and the rest are available.

What do you read for fun? Is it all history and espionage books, or do you go the opposite way for your own leisure?

No, I don’t. My wife thinks I’m nuts, but that’s what I like to read. I’m happy when I’m reading that. I’m so interested in it, and I feel in a way privileged to have some kind of obsession in my life. I don’t think it’s a bad thing. Growing up I never thought I’d be one of those people—I’m shocked! And every time I finish another author’s book, they publish two new ones. And it’s not just me, there is such interest in this, as I like to say when I tour, they fight this war every night on the History Channel and we always win.

Any author/s that you just can’t get enough of?

I like the great classics of the period, George Orwell, Joseph Roth, Arthur Kessler, Eric Ambler, Graham Green, Evelyn Waugh. I like the British writers of the Thirties and Forties. These are terrific guys who really could write. Also Anthony Pole, he’s a rare taste, but when people get addicted to him they form clubs, it’s like being a moonie. I also like George MacDonald Fraser. Have you ever read Flashman? Fabulous! They’re historical marvels that have the same character. In the book Tom Brown’s Schooldays the most despicable bully in the school was Harry Flashman and these are his adventures after he’s thrown out of school and serves in the army. He’s a cad, he’s a scoundrel, but he’s a hero in every battle, always by accident. He’s terrified, he’s running away, but everybody follows him and he’s now said to have led the Charge of the Light Brigade. It’s very amusing. He’s a terrific writer.

Tell us about your web site (AlanFurst.net).

I’m so hot on the Internet, I can’t begin to tell you. It’s just incredible. I think I sell a lot of books that way. I get about 2000 hits a month on my web site, and I think people go to buy books from there or it sends them to the library. These days when somebody says who is X, you go right to Google. It’s utterly wonderful and amazing.

What’s next for you, can you say?

I can’t really say. I do have an idea I’m fooling around with and it will take place in Paris. Exactly when and where and how I can’t say. The last book before The Foreign Correspondant is Dark Voyage, a sea spy adventure. I really liked it, but I’m a lot happier writing about what I call café society espionage novels, which is exactly what The Foreign Correspondent is. I’m going to write another one of those, there’s no question about that. Then I might like to write something really weird about submarines or whatever, but who knows? I never know.