Set in Poland in the aftermath of WWII, Operation Nightfall: The Web of Spies by Karl Wegener is a stirring work of historical wartime fiction with equal parts historical detail, intensive character development, and spy thriller action.
In this dark, ravaged world where each country is busy counting their dead, forces are moving silently to seize power, and spies lurk in every shadow. In the middle of the night, agents in England receive a coded message and it seems to be by a spy they haven’t heard from in over three years. Could it be possible that Operation Nightfall, dormant for so long, is now ready to begin, or is the woman an imposter?
Meanwhile, Colonel Solokov can sense that something is changing in the region – one could call it disquiet, or unrest, but the Colonel knows how soon such things can turn into a full-blown insurrection. That is, after all, why the Soviet state sent him to Northwest Poland: to keep an eye on the situation and stifle any opposition before it can become an insurgency. Suspicion is the order of the day in the village of Puck, and not only among the Russian intelligence. Neighbors spy against neighbors, and families turn in their own to the Soviet police. Strangers are constantly watched, and rumors spread fast.
As the Colonel examines the scene where two militiamen have been brutally murdered by the Polish Home Army, he finds an earring – perhaps the group of dissident soldiers hiding in the forest have been helped by a woman. At the same time, it didn’t take long for Bialik – the new kindergarten teacher who recently moved from Warsaw – to draw attention to herself. She’s asking too many curious questions about the soldiers in the forest, and both sides are wondering who this woman could be…
With free-flowing but perfectly controlled prose, Wegener throws the reader into a world of violence and intrigue, desperate hope, and inspiringly deep human connections. It is a time of unexpected love and improbable friendships, of gathering tight with those who survived, but it is also a time of trickery and betrayal, in which no one can be trusted. Wegener’s novel distinguishes itself from other historical thrillers for its emotional and psychological layering. Despite being plot-driven, Wagener never forgets to take his time to give characters humanity and depth, making their stories immediately relatable, even in a war-torn landscape of spies and soldiers. Bialik’s backstory, for instance, full of grief and hardship, gives her a harder edge, but her motivations are never used as convenient justifications for her actions. This is a world where people do what they can to survive, so even darker instincts become understandable in this careful rendering of human behavior during crisis.
Wegener challenges stereotypical takes on the run-up to the Cold War, avoiding a neat division between good and bad. Vulnerabilities can bubble up in the most hardened spies, and cruelty can inhabit the quiet farmers of the country. How can one judge one side or the other, when both have done so much harm? What is the difference for a commoner in Puck to be killed by the Germans, or to be eliminated by the Russians? One begins to understand the distress and motivations on every side of the divide, for an emotionally rich and utterly absorbing read.
Savage and tender, exciting and moving, Operation Nightfall is a stellar exploration of the brooding years after WWII, offering readers the feeling of first-hand experience with the uncertainty, drama, and danger of life in that storied era.
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