![]() ![]() How they behaved-the side they chose, the fight they embraced, the actions they took-forever defined them. ![]() That said, the book’s subtitle, “A True Story of Terror, Espionage, and One American Family’s Heroic Resistance in Nazi-Occupied Paris,” reminds us that the protagonists and antagonists here were not creatures of a fevered artistic imagination, but men, women, and even children caught in the jaws of history. Kershaw’s latest, Avenue of Spies, is as strong as any of his other books, with the added benefit that it follows a cast of characters so complex and so varied-from the almost impossibly brave and selfless to the most bestial, sadistic, and psychotic-that any self-respecting novelist would sell his or her soul for the chance to tell their tale. For an author to find new stories to tell from such a thoroughly picked-over era-and to make those stories feel at once dramatic and, somehow, new-is no mean feat. World War II, after all, might well be the most thoroughly documented conflict in human history. In The Bedford Boys, The Liberator, The Longest Winter, and other titles, Kershaw’s capacity for synthesizing immense amounts of research has been matched-and often surpassed-by his strengths as a storyteller. ![]() Over the past decade, British-born Alex Kershaw has emerged as one of the most reliably engaging writers on key battles and, even more notably, on long-unsung heroes of World War II. ![]()
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