Russia

Nov 24 2011

Thirst by Andrei Gelasimov

Thirst by Andrei Gelasimovme is part of the new imprint from Amazon, AmazonCrossing.  What is AmazonCrossing? Here is how Amazon describes it:

With translations of foreign language books from around the world, AmazonCrossing makes award-winning and bestselling books accessible to many readers for the first time.

Short book, interesting hook and a chance to read something different? Sure, I will give it a shot.  As you might have guessed, Thirst ties into alcohol:

Masterfully translated from the original Russian by award-winning translator Marian Schwartz, Thirst tells the story of 20-year-old Chechen War veteran Kostya. Maimed beyond recognition by a tank explosion, he spends weeks on end locked inside his apartment, his sole companions the vodka bottles spilling from the refrigerator. But soon Kostya’s comfortable if dysfunctional cocoon is torn open when he receives a visit from his army buddies who are mobilized to locate a missing comrade. Through this search for his missing friend, Kostya is able to find himself.

It is a spare and impressionistic story of a veteran trying to makes sense of his life after having his face and body disfigured in the war in Chechnya.   Hunkered down in his apartment with so much vodka it wont fit in his small refrigerator, Kostya occasional rehabs apartments for the Euro-rich – working alone of course. His interaction is limited to his neighbor calling on him to scare her son into going to bed.

When his buddies call on him to assist in their search for another fellow vet, he ends up meeting up with his estranged father and his young family. These interactions shake him out of his depression and allow him to see the wider world rather than just his internal struggles. Keep Reading

By Kevin Holtsberry • Reviews • 0 • Tags: , , , ,

May 27 2011

Black Ghosts by Victor Ostrovsky

I used to read a lot of espionage fiction. At its best it has a nice blend of action and intrigue with character depth and complex plots. But I haven’t been reading much of it lately.

When I was pitched on Black Ghosts by Victor Ostrovsky it seemed like a nice break and a quick entertaining read. That turned out to be true – to a degree – but it lacked the depth and complexity I was looking for.

Black Ghosts gets its name from an underground Russian group of ex-KGB operatives who secretly control large segments of the military and government in the former Soviet Union.

One of the leaders, Peter Ivanovitch Rogov,  manages to escape from prison in Siberia and plots to return Mother Russia to the glory of the Czars – powerful autocratic rule, not the weak corruption of democracy. Allies inside the US are manipulating the government to help him and thus return the money making conflict of the Cold War years.

A former elite US military and intelligence operative gets inadvertently sucked into the battle to stop this group when a friend shows up at his door shot and bleeding – actually a very attractive women shows up at his door and leads Edward to his friend.

As Edward slowly gets pulled in deeper and deeper, and as Rogov’s plan gets closer to completion, a show down is building. Can Edward save Russia and the United States at the same time? Can former enemies and mafia kingpins work with a makeshift army to defeat Rogov? Keep Reading

By Kevin Holtsberry • Reviews • 0 • Tags: , , , ,

Nov 29 2010

Red Star Rising by Brian Freemantle

When it comes to espionage fiction I am usually in the cold dark and gray camp. LeCarre (early not late), Deighton, etc. so Brian Freemantle’s Charlie Muffin seemed in my wheelhouse.

Despite my preferecne of reading a character of series in order I decided to read Red Star Rising without having read any of the previous books.

It turned out to be classic cold war spy fiction even though it was set in post war Europe. Here is the plot summary from the dust jacket:

The body of a murdered, tortured Russian has been found in Moscow, which isn’t unusual in the crime-ridden city. What is different is that this corpse is on the lawn of the British embassy.

Eager to prevent an international incident, London dispatches veteran MI5 agent Charlie Muffin to investigate. Charlie is an old hand who recognizes that little has changed in the post–Soviet Union, most definitely not the espionage enmity between Russia, Britain, and America. The search for the identity of the murdered man enmeshes Charlie in what might be the biggest attempted espionage coup of his career.

Being in Moscow has very personal implications for Charlie, too. It provides the opportunity for a re-union with his Russian wife, Natalia, and their young daughter, whom he had to abandon because of a hurried recall to the UK five years earlier. It’s also the chance to persuade the reluctant Natalia, an officer in Russia’s FSB intelligence service, to return with him to London.

In classic spy fiction fashion Charlie is fighting the bad guys, often his superiors and his own demons/past. On top of this you have a constantly shifting set of puzzle pieces that he has to put together.

On a basic level there is the mystery of the dead body. On another level is the internal-politics and security of the embassy. And over it all is the geopolitical maneuvering motivating it all. And if this is not enough Charlie is attempting to put his family back together.

Freemantle does a good job of weaving all of this threads together and keeping the pace moving. Just when you think you have a handle on what is going on the puzzle pieces move and you have to rethink. And it is never clear, to Charlie or the reader, just exactly what Charlie really wants professionally or personaly.

Booklist has a nice description of Charlie and the book:

Alternately cautious and daring, self-critical, pragmatic, and fatalistically idealistic, the maverick Muffin will appeal to fans of John le Carré’s George Smiley and to readers of classic espionage novels. The USSR is now Russia, and the KGB is now the FSB, but this is still a story of telephone booths and old-school spycraft—old-school quality, too.

If I had one complaint it was that the twists and turns at the end threatened to overwhelm the story. It gets rather complicated and convoluted by the end. Freemantle pulls it off but it is a bit much.

That aside, fans of classic espionage fiction will enjoy this version updated to the post-cold war world.

By Kevin Holtsberry • Reviews • 0 • Tags: , , , , , , ,

Nov 30 2009

Red To Black by Alex Dryden

Red to Black by Alex Dryden seems to be clearly aiming for the blend of current events and espionage made famous by John Le Care but Dryden adds in a large dose of love story.

It also has the feel of an indictment of Vladimir Putin‘s Russia, and a castigation of the West’s response, in fiction form. Put it all together and it makes for an interesting read; some of it works very well other aspects less well.

Here is a video trailer for the book:

For the more textual among us here is the blurb:

Finn is a veteran MI6 operative stationed in Moscow. In the guise of an amiable trade secretary, he has penetrated deep into the dangerous labyrinth that is Russia under Vladimir Putin to discover some of its darkest secrets, thanks to a high-level source deep within the Kremlin.

The youngest female colonel in the KGB, Anna is the ambitious daughter of one of the former Soviet Union’s elite espionage families. Charged with helping to make Russia strong again under Putin, she is ordered to spy on Finn and discover the identity of his mole.

At the dawn of the new millennium, these adversaries find themselves brought together by an unexpected love that becomes the only truth they can trust. When Finn uncovers a shocking and ingenious plan—hatched in the depths of the Cold War—to control the European continent and shift the balance of world power, he and Anna are thrust into a deadly plot in which friend and foe wear the same face. With time running out, they will race across Europe and risk every-thing—career, reputation, and even their own lives—to expose the terrifying truth.

For my take see below.

Keep Reading

By Kevin Holtsberry • Reviews • 0 • Tags: , , , , ,