An Officer and a Spy - by Robert Harris
It was about 4 years ago that I first read this historical Robert Harris novel, and I just finished reading it over again. Similar to the effect that John Grisham's novels have on me, it took an effort to put the book down, to not continue reading. Previously to reading the novel I had watched a number of times the movie "The Life of Emile Zola", which, as well as this book, describes one of the greatest miscarriages of justice of all time, the conviction and imprisonment on Devil's Island of Alfred Dreyfus. The movie tells the story from the viewpoint of Emile Zola, author of the iconic newpaper front page article "J'accuse", whereas Harris tells the story from the viewpont of Georges Piquart, of the Intelligence sector of the French army at around the end of the 19th century. Better than I can describe it, I suggest that you open and read this literary review of Harris' work. This is a link to the review:
https://www.npr.org/2014/01/30/264525472/historical-trauma-makes-for-thrilling-fiction-in-officer-and-a-spy
There is a link in the review that opens a long passage from the novel that will give you an idea of the author's technique and style:
https://www.npr.org/books/titles/264567410/an-officer-and-a-spy#excerpt
An Officer and a Spy has since been adapted into a movie directed by Roman Polanski, which was filmed in Paris, where most of the story actually took place, and uses French actors, and I believe the primary language is French although I assume it was probably dubbed into English to be shown in the English language countries, using in America and other locations the same titlle as the book, and in Canada and other locations the tiitle "J'accuse". The IMDb reference to the movie can be seen at this link:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2398149/?ref_=kw_li_tt
Tags
Who is online
72 visitors
An Officer and a Spy by Robert Harris is a compelling historical novel - hard to put the book down.
Sounds like this one might be part fact/part fiction?
Yes, I read that it is fact-based fiction. I guess it's like starting with an actual skeleton and then applying flesh to it. However, the author lists extensive acknowledgments with numerous references - he did a lot of research in order to make the novel as factual as possible.
Fair enough
Thanks Buzz. I'm intrigued and running low on reading material right now with only 2 books left in my queue that I'm not really interested in.