The Polish Officer

It is a common and valid critique of Furst's books that they are just strung together scenes and images. The main character serves mostly to propel the viewpoint around (pre)war Europe and to provide a place to hang a sense of resigned wistful badassery. This is certainly true here, but I think it m......more

This book has a scene of such heartbreaking sadness, desperation, fragility and beauty that I think about it quite often. For those that have read it, it's the scene near the beginning with young girl who wants on the train. It says something about the impact of war on the innocent and something els......more

(de Milja) was getting tired of the four walls – could they out for a walk? She agreed to go. Scared as she was, she agreed. Strange, he thought, how you stumble on the world’s secret nobility when you are not even looking for them. September 1939. As the Germans annex Poland, Captain Alexander de Mi......more

More Than A Spy Story The protagonist of this WW II spy novel is Captain de Milja, a Polish officer who is recruited as part of the Polish underground resistance following the fall of Warsaw to the Nazis in 1939. De Milja is a man of few words, perceptive, hard, unafraid of danger, and able to adjust......more

The ‘Polish Officer’ follows the fortunes of Captain Alexander de Milja, from the fall of Poland in 1939 when he is recruited into the Polish underground to 1941, when he finds himself fighting alongside the partisans in the forests of the Ukraine. de Milja’s first mission is to take charge of the t......more