Has anyone read the novels of Alan Furst? I read a lot but just came upon his works. They all take place from 1930-1945 and the locale is often Paris. Check his web site on Google for more info on his works. I am hooked- am on the 5th one... started with his first and am working my way through.

I have read all his novels and enjoyed them very much. You might also want to try John Janes who writes mysteries set in Paris during the occupation. They are very good also.

Not Paris, but a new book to be published by Grove in November 2006, <i>Berlin</i>, is absolutely incredible.

It's a thriller set in post WWII Berlin, and it includes a series of mini-biographies that are fantastic.

Berlin, by Pierre Frei.

I LOVE Alan Furst!!! I read the World at Night and Red Gold, GREAT!! I'm taking Kingdom of Shadows with me on my trip next week. The others are on my short list (Night Soldiers, Dark Star, Polish Officer).

Another Furst fan!

I'll have to try Furst. Have you read Erich Maria Remarque? He's best known for &quot;All Quiet on the Western Front,&quot; but it was his &quot;Arch de Triomphe&quot; that introduced me to calvados. It was one of the first things I ordered on my first trip to Paris.

I read Kingdom of Shadows on my last trip to Paris. One afternoon, I spent some time sitting in a chair in the Luxembourg Gardens, people-watching. Later that evening, I was reading Kingdom of Shadows in my hotel room and came to a scene where a character is shot while sitting in the Luxembourg Gardens. I love stuff like that (reading books that take place in places I'm in, not people getting shot).

Suite Francaise, by Irene Nemirovski, is not a mystery or a spy novel, but a very compelling fictional work about life in occupied France, written at the same time as the events it describes. Nemirovski envisioned the &quot;suite&quot; as a series of five novels, but had completed only two of them when she was sent to Auschwitz, where she died.

I just finished Suite Francaise and will also heartily endorse that novel. The author really captures the mood and ambience of the mass exodus from Paris when the Germans entered the city as well as the 2 year aftermath in rural France until her arrest.

VCL - I found Arc de Triumph on a shelf at my mother's house a few weeks ago and am almost finished with it. When I saw this thread I was going to recommend it - it has very good atmosphere.

I agree with Bree, about &quot;Suite Fran&ccedil;ais.&quot;

Wasn't Alan Furst the furst host of Candid Camera?

Doesn't anyone read MFK Fisher or Christina Stead anymore?

If you really want to embrace your inner Gertrude Stein, buy a great cigarette holder in bone and horn by Hedi Slimane for Dior Homme.

MFK Fisher is a favorite of mine, I still reread her as I do Colette.
Christina Stead is still popular.
I never embraced Gertrude Stein but I do like Alice B, Toklas's cookbook and vignettes of their friends.

While it is a history, &quot;Is Paris Burning&quot; really gives the low down on the occupation by the Nazis--and the subsequent disobeyal of orders by the German commander that saved the beautiful city.

Jinx Hoover

Alan Funt not Furst was the host of Candid Camera

cigale, you would probably like Monique Tuong's &quot;Book of Salt.&quot; The novel is about Paris seen through the eyes of the Vietnamese cook of Stein and Toklas.

Good morning.

I second a vote for &quot;Is Paris Burning?&quot; It was one of the most intensely emotional books I've ever read---You really start to understand what the Parisians were going though during the Nazi occupation. I also really enjoyed the movie of the novel which was made in the early 1960's. It has a great international cast, and they filmed in black and white, interspersing actual footage of the liberation of Paris with the fictional account.

Thanks, margiela, I've added it to my list as I must be a stay at home these days.

Sounds silly but I keep a map of Paris handy to check what section of the city the characters are moving about in. Have found that Furst is extremely accurate.