Book
Night Soldiers
by Alan Furst
Book 1 in the Night Soldiers series.
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Bulgaria, 1934. After fascists murder his younger brother, Khristo Stoianev is recruited by the Soviet intelligence service and taken to Moscow for clandestine training. His education in surveillance, deception and political discipline leads him into the Spanish Civil War, where Soviet operatives, international volunteers and rival factions discover that the struggle against fascism is accompanied by Stalinist suspicion and internal terror.
Warned that the purges are closing around his own service, Khristo escapes into the uncertain refuge of pre-war Paris. The coming German occupation eventually draws him into resistance work, completing a journey that spans the competing totalitarian systems of the era. The novel follows how loyalty, friendship and self-preservation are repeatedly redefined as Europe moves from ideological conflict into total war.