Line #37 Creator/AlanFurst


1	[[quoteright:230:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_furst.png]]
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3	Alan Furst (born February 20, 1941) is an American writer born in New York City and known for his spy fiction set in Europe before and during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. Usually the plots are sinister and fraught with cynicism while at the same time being overlapped by grand descriptions of European culture. The usual theme is of a flawed, (but eminently likable), competent (but usually not unbelievably so) character caught up in the epic struggle and doing his part. His work has earned him the Helmerich award in 2011.
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6	!!Works include:
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8	* Night Soldiers (1988)
9	* Dark Star (1991)
10	* The Polish Officer (1995)
11	* The World at Night (1996)
12	* Red Gold (1999)
13	* Kingdom of Shadows (2000)
14	* Blood of Victory (2003)
15	* Dark Voyage (2004)
16	* The Foreign Correspondent (2006)
17	* The Spies of Warsaw (2008)
18	* Spies of the Balkans (2010)
19	* Mission to Paris (2012)
20	* Midnight in Europe (2014)
21	* A Hero of France (2016)
22	* Under Occupation (2019)
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25	!!Tropes in Alan Furst novels:
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27	* AnachronicOrder: The novels are not written in any particular order, but as they are mostly standalones, this does not present a problem to the casual reader. The only exception is ''Red Gold'', which is a direct sequel to ''The World at Night''.
28	* {{Antihero}}: The protagonist is usually this.
29	* BadassBookworm: Several characters
30	* BigBad: UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler and UsefulNotes/JosefStalin
31	* BlackAndGrayMorality
32	* TheChessmaster: His books are stuffed to the brim with them.
33	* CityOfSpies: Every city in Europe.
34	* DirtyCommunists: Furst's Communists are ''really'' creepy.
35	* TheEmpire: Russia and Germany
36	* TheFederation: Britain and France
37	* EvilVersusEvil: DirtyCommunists and ThoseWackyNazis
38	* GambitPileup
39	* GayParee: Honestly, Furst seems to have a crush on Paris.
40	* GovernmentInExile
41	* HeroicNeutral: Several of the characters start as this
42	* LaResistance: The good guys
43	* LittleHeroBigWar
44	* OnceAnEpisode: sooner or later, someone will visit the ''Brasserie Heininger'' in Paris. Sometimes more than once.
45	* {{Ruritania}}: The best way to describe the little countries all about. A lot of them are Balkan or Eastern European countries ruled by petty GloriousLeader s of varying degrees of evilness but seldom really comparable to the {{Big Bad}}s.
46	* SacredHospitality: In one novel, an UsefulNotes/{{OSS}} agent in the Balkans is sheltered by a fishing village. Sometime later the villagers discover that left on the shore for them is a feast (smuggled in by the OSS) with a note left to them thanking them. The villagers thereupon wonder what fabulously rich refugee they had obtained the gratitude of.
47	* SecretPolice: the Gestapo and the NKVD
48	* TechnoBabble: Furst fans love his realistic tradecraft.
49	* TheVerse: The novels are connected by the afore-mentioned ''Brasserie Heininger'' and also by a web of inter-connecting characters appearing in multiple stories.
50	* ThoseWackyNazis: of course
51	* YeGoodeOldeDays: Furst novels practically drip with nostalgia about Europe during the 1930s and 1940s.
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Context Creator / AlanFurst