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January 05, 2009
Reading a Non-Trilogy Russian Trilogy
Recently I read three Russian-themed books by separate authors and enjoyed them all. They are not strictly related, but in my mind they stand as a trilogy, starting in 1941, moving to 1953, and then on to the current social miasma that is Russia. In the correct order, the books are "City of Thieves" by David Benioff; "Child 44" by Tom Rob Smith; and "Stalin's Ghost" by Martin Cruz Smith.
Two of the books have strikingly similar openings. Child 44's first page says,
That had been the moment Maria decided to die, with nothing to eat and nothing to love.
City of Thieves has an equally haunting sentence, in which a character tells his grandson:
You have never been so hungry; you have never been so cold.
Stalin's Ghost brings back Moscow investigator Arkady Renko for another round of battles against bureaucracy, criminals, memory of his father, and a well-heeled rival for the hand of his girlfriend Eva.
All the books mesmerized me with their mix of history, danger and romance in a cold, dangerous place. For readers who want even more Eastern European skullduggery, Alan Furst's The Spies of Warsaw has a French-Polish atmosphere, with Russian spies sliding into the plot at key points.
Fans can join me in twitching in anticipation, because Tom Rob Smith is writing a sequel to Child 44, called "The Secret Speech," a reference to the 1956 denunciation of Stalin by Nikita Khrushchev. All I can say is -- bring it on.
Van | 01/05/09 at 07:50 PM | Categories: Sensual pleasures
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Comments
Whisperers is a good book centering on the Stalin period but covering, as related, before and after.
Michael | January 7, 2009 10:41 PM
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