An Officer and a Spy: A novel Hardcover – Deckle Edge, January 28, 2014

What a story! And so we’ll written!! I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading a historical novel!

Mon Cher Esther (and Louis)!Sabine and I are on the ‘plane returning from Paris (that’s why I am still speaking French) and I decided I should email you now, because once we are at home, I know we’ll be shot out of a canon trying to catch up with everything.We have been away for 10 days. First we went to Berlin to visit with Sabine’s Brother and wife and then on to Paris, where we met a friend who was also travelling. We visited tons of museums, galleries and exhibitions. HIGHLIGHTS: The Gamaldegalerie in Berlin is a HUGE museum with tons of old masters type paintings. It’s light and bright and spacious and the audio guide is very educational and entertaining. . We also saw a great exhibit at the Berlin Film Museum on the set designer who did all of the sets for James Bond. The Klimt exhibition was one of our favourites in Paris, but we wish there were more pictures and less background and it was very dark and gloomy so one feels tired. We also enjoyed the Jeanne Lavin exhibit….beautifully displayed! We always return to our favourite 2 private house which are now museums in Paris and in Berlin we went to the opera and saw La Boheme and Madame Butterfly. In between there were restaurants galore and lots of adventures. We find both the Germans and French, really, really nice to us. As you know, it all becomes a bit of a blur after a while.But now we are ready to come back to TO and reality and especially to our Tia whom we miss soooooo much. She is, after all, our “baby”!I am attaching a group of photos….. We have lots more, but won’t bore you…..- We took a day trip to a small town, Neuselle to visit a Cathedral and Cloister where the monks made beer- Sabine in the breakfast room.- Me in a café outside the Film Institute- Our fav Italian restaurant in the art gallery area of Berlin (like Queen Street). This is a great poster of little people.- You know this landmark- With our friend, Catherine, in the Salon at our hotel where we drink champagne and then go out to dinner.- Look very carefully who is sitting at the table with the 2 men!So, enough about me…hope you and Louis are happy and well, especially your leg. I know you guys will be enjoying family and a whirlwind of get togethers with family and friends over Passover. Enjoy!One more thing about me and all’s fine….for the last 6 months I have been dealing with heart stuff. I have what’s called Atril Fribulation where the heart goes crazy and beats rapidly and goes on and on. It’s no big deal, because there are good meds for it and it’s controlled. I have been in and out of the hospital for tests and procedures and next Friday, I will be at St. Miles to have a Cardio Conversion which shocks my heart to try to get it back into proper rhythm. As I said, don’t fret, this is not going to kill me…the risks are stoke which are now under control and tremendous fatigue from my heart working so hard, plus the meds. I will get better so I can look after Sabine and Tia and do business with PI Fine Art. I am reluctant to tell you all of this and please keep it quiet. It’s being dealt with and there’s no reason to trouble people. I mention it to you because you have noted that I am not in touch as often as I would prefer.That’s enough update for now. Luv to you guys and take care…..Sabine and BryonPS: It is Easter time as well as Passover and I recall you telling me that Andy used to write you from camp and spell your name “Easter” or something like that – whatever, it’s cute.Bryon PattonBryon Patton & Associates160 Pears Avenue, Suite 314Toronto, ON M5R 3P8Tel: (416) 960-6060Fax: (416) 960-2007A wonderful book, engaging, exciting , mysterious and historical

Because I read a lot of history, fictionalized history is not my favorite genre. Too often the artistic license taken is so broad that it interferes with my reading. It's like dissonance of the brain or alarms clanging in the background. However, once in a while I get wind of a well-researched well-written novelized history, and then I enjoy it immensely."An Officer and a Spy" is in the latter camp. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It is like a thriller. Even though I knew how the story ends, I could not put it down.Our narrator is Major Picquart, a real person originally in military transport. In 1895, the year after Dreyfus' conviction for treason, Picquart is promoted to Colonel in the Statistical Section of the Ministry of War. The Statistical Section is the intelligence/counter intelligence arm of the War office. It is a grubby shady operation. That it can require the individual's suspension of morals morays and sense of fair play is impressed on Picquart fairly quickly, He has to sign off on the monthly reports on Dreyfus' solitary confinement on Devil's Island. The conditions in which the prisoner is held are grotesquely cruel. Picquart writes, "Gradually over the winter I discern that we do in fact have a policy with regard to Dreyfus, it has simply never been explained to me in so many words, either verbally or on paper. We are waiting for him to die."The true story of how Picquart uncovers evidence of Dreyfus' innocence is interesting. The true story of how Picquart is pole-axed to find out that the army has no intention of admitting it made a mistake is dismaying. The story of how Picquart discovers the true traitor is riveting. The trials at the end, where the army actually helps the real traitor get an acquittal in exchange for helping them frame Picquart as Dreyfus' confederate, again, only to keep from admitting its mistake with Dreyfus, had me near foaming at the mouth. That invoking the name Dreyfus Affair now means an excruciating miscarriage of justice is no sleight of hand. This is an extraordinary tale from start to finish.Robert Harris does an excellent job of marshaling a lot of dates and data into a story that has only a few places where it gets a bit bogged down in detail. His characterizations are rich, "Gribelin is an enigma to me: the epitome of the servile bureaucrat; an animated corpse. He could be any age between forty and sixty and is as thin as a wraith of black smoke, the only colour he wears. Mostly he closets himself alone upstairs in his archive; on the rare occasions he does appear he creeps along close to the wall, dark and silent as a shadow. I could imagine him slipping around the edge of a closed door, or sliding beneath it."Before the denouement, for his refusal to let go, to shut up, to not bend, Picquart is cashiered from the army and those closest to him are harassed: "For the first time in my life I carry hatred inside me. It is an almost physical thing, like a concealed knife. Sometimes, when I am alone, I like to take it out and run my thumb along its cold, sharp blade."Robert Harris admits that he opted to make small additions/alterations to the real plot keep the flow of his fictional story. But overall, he stuck very much to the truth. In particular, the named people are real people. I haven't read anything else by Harris, but I'll have to put him on my "newly discovered" list and see if I appreciate another of his works.I very much enjoyed "An Officer and a Spy" and recommend it!Happy Reader

With the benefit of hindsight, it is easy castigate the army general staff and to bristle with anger on the injustices meted out to Alfred Dreyfuss and George Picquart. What fascinates me is the ability of Robert Harris to transport me to the here and now 120 years ago. Or whatever era the story is set in; be that Pompei, Munich or The Second Sleep.Whilst Dreyfus was the victim of criminal injustice. He had no choice. That he survived the ordeal is truly remarkable.George Picquart did not know what would happen from one day to the next. He did not know in 1894 what he knew in 1898. All he had was his expertise and common sense.Picquart could have walked away from it all. It is what the General Staff was hoping he would do. But he did chose not to. For Dreyfus's and for our benefit, he chose to right the wrong that had been done.When I am faced with such a choice, will I too seek to right a wrong? With utter disregard to the consequences that I fear may befall me?

There is little I can add to the plaudits already heaped upon Robert Harris. It is simply a compulsive read. The story of the Dreyfus affair and its effect upon not only French public opinion but also that of Europe and beyond. Also its ramifications on the First World War - and possibly World War 2 should not be underestimated. It is a very complex story and it is a tribute to Robert Harris that he has retained the historical accuracy of the affair and present it as a novel. His research is painstaking and I am personally amazed that he has managed to retain the tension throughout what is a lengthy book. 'An Officer and A Spy' grips the reader from the first to the last page - and it has encouraged me to delve deeper into this dreadful chapter of French history. Alfred Dreyfus - a dedicated artillery Captain and victim of militant anti-Semitism that followed the Franco-Prussian war who was wrongly convicted of spying for the German military and incarcerated on Devil's Island - only to be eventually pardoned and re-instated as an Army officer and who saw service in World War 1. A truly magnificent book - don't miss it!

I really wasn't expecting such a good book. It really is very good indeed.It concerns the Dreyfus scandal, told through the perspective of one of the officers who was directly involved in the prosecution, subsequent investigations and ultimately in the exoneration of Albert Dreyfus.Picquart, the narrator is an ambitious officer; an honest and cultured man who goes to salons and concerts by Debussy in his free time. He translates Dostoyevsky from the Russian. In prison, he reads works given to him by contemporary authors such as Proust and Zola.The narrative is detailed and unfolds very slowly. There are many characters to try to keep track of.I cannot vouch for its accuracy; all I can say is that I read this book avidly and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Reading my way through all of Harris' books, I confess to leaving this one until a long way down the list as this particular historical event held little appeal for me. Once again, though, Harris subtly drew me in through what, in real terms, was a huge legal tangle lasting several years and somehow made it acceptable and extremely interesting reading. Quite how this author manages to sift through unimaginable amounts of dry research and then produces a beautifully written, gripping and tense account of this long saga I don't know, but he does it in spades. If, like me, the subject of this novel doesn't entirely grab you, don't be put off from reading it - it's up there with all of Harris' other books.

Knowing the broad outlines of the Dreyfus Affair, and not really wanting to read the weighty definitive historical tomes, I found this account superb. It is very well researched, and relating events through the eyes of Colonel Picquart makes it accesible, personal, and impossible to put down, despite knowing the outcome. A rare skill which Robert Harris has in spades,