Alan Furst
Alan Furst
Alan Furstis an American author of historical spy novels. Furst has been called "an heir to the tradition of Eric Ambler and Graham Greene," whom he cites along with Joseph Roth and Arthur Koestler as important influences. Most of his novels since 1988 have been set just prior to or during the Second World War and he is noted for his successful evocations of Eastern European peoples and places during the period from 1933 to 1944...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth20 February 1941
CountryUnited States of America
I would have loved to have another 10 Eric Ambler books.
I was going to be the best failed novelist in Paris. That was certainly not the worst thing in the world that one could be.
I think I honestly invented my own genre, the historical spy novel.
I spend my life writing fiction, so reading fiction isn't much of an escape. That's not always true, but I don't read much contemporary fiction.
I read very little contemporary anything... I don't think I read what other people read, but then why would I, considering what I do?
I never wanted to be a Cold War novelist.
I love the gray areas, but I like the gray areas as considered by bright, educated, courageous people.
I love the combination of the words 'spies' and 'Balkans.' It's like meat and potatoes.
I like to say I sit alone in my room, and I fight the language. I am wildly obsessive. I can't let something go if I think it's wrong.
I knew I was a writer; I wanted to be a writer, but I didn't know what to write.
I had a publishing history of murder mysteries.
I don't work Sunday any more... The Sabbath is a very reasonable idea. Otherwise, you work yourself to death.
I could not spend the rest of my life sitting in Brazil writing down who called whom uncle and aunt.
I chose a time in the century which had the greatest moments for novels - the late '30s and World War II.