“I never got any training in how to write novels as an English major at Oberlin, but I got some great training for writing novels from anthropology and from Margaret Mead.”

American author of historical spy novels

Alan Furst is an American author of historical spy novels. His work has often been linked to the tradition of Eric Ambler and Graham Greene, writers he names, along with Joseph Roth and Arthur Koestler, as major influences. Since 1988, most of his novels have been set just before or during the Second World War. He is especially noted for evoking the people and places of Eastern Europe in the years from 1933 to 1944.