A Hero of France by Alan FurstMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
A wonderful, emotional account of of one Resistance cell, in Paris during 1941, helping downed British airmen to escape back to England. Code named Mathieu, he leads this small group - a covert network that numbers Lisette, Joëlle - who falls in love with Mathieu, Max de Lyon, an arms dealer turned nightclub owner, Daniel, a Jewish teacher fuelled by revenge, Chantal and Annemarie. This intimate tale reads like a prose poem as this band of heroes risk everything to outmaneuver collaborators, informers and spies and the threat of discovery by the ruthless German military police.
Alan Furst has made this period of history his own. For me, nobody does it better. Romantic, melancholic and full of suspense and, as The Washington Post said: "And it's not giving anything away to say that in the end many readers will want to stand up and sing 'La Marseillaise' through their tears." C'est vrai....
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