There was so much power and energy in this book I could feel it in every swipe of the skates in the story. A reminder of the Nancy Kerrigan scandal with the training and determination of what goes on behind the scenes. Written as a Taylor Jenkins Read kinda book with pizazz and a similar tone and diary excerpts.
This has ' movie' written all over it. The skating, the competitions, the training, the wanting to be no. 1, the way it changes a person. Well this is powerful stuff. I imagine people who train for anything = sport or otherwise will recognise the sacrifices and sheer bl**dy mindedness of what it takes to get to the top. I felt tired just reading about the skating!
A powerful read that honestly you just can't take your eyes off. Whats going to happen, what did happen? Will the skating couple get back together? what was the tragedy that broke them apart? Very compelling stuff
It made me want to watch Torvill and Dean on repeat....more
I immediately feel as if I want to list the ways I love this novel.
A novel set on board the Trans Siberian Express
A steampunk fantasy
An alternative, dark yet magical, Victorian world
This book has changed and altered me in ways I can’t yet tell. I feel different having read it and that might be because of the magic within. Let me explain:
Picture yourself on board this very mystical and magical train. You fly past the landscape between Bejing and Moscow so you can imagine the scenery and the distance. A wonderful journey from the start. However, this is no ordinary journey – it’s fraught with danger and strange other-worldly things. There are walls at the start and end of the track and along the way the train is protected by outside forces. Certain cities are protected by giant walls and there is a distinct difference between outsiders and insiders.
Now this is where you can read so much more into the novel than first appears – walls being built to keep people out of a country for starters. Then there’s the idea of belonging to another territory and what happens when that link breaks. What about the walls and barriers we can’t see?
Even with those serious layers, there is nothing heavy about this book. There’s nods to Agatha Christie’s Orient Express and I got Night Circus vibes too given the world building and the link between the real world and that which we cannot see.
I enjoyed every magical part of this book but the setting – oh the setting!- was out of this world. I want to go to the Wastelands and board that train. It lives on in my mind but I have been back many times in my dreams.
That’s when you know a book has you hooked!...more
This book really intrigued me. Not only is it about the work of a translator, but we go behind the scenes in the political corridors of both Moscow and London.
Clive Franklin is an expert in the Russian language and works for the Foreign Office in London. He’s on a bit of a break when he is called back to work. He’s asked to head to Moscow with a delegation and the PM. Not surprisingly, he is nervous. Ok, so he speaks the language but he likes to stay ‘ safe’ behind the translators lines. Acting as an interpreter makes you more vulnerable as you are ‘live’ and visible. As a translator in this very unstable political drama, he can relax a little.
When he gets to Moscow, we get to discover the city with him. Luckily, he has time to explore and familiarize himself with the streets and landmarks of the capital. There’s a bit of a guided tour in a way around the ballet and the Metropol, as well as the politically famous Red Square and government buildings.
As I was reading this, I felt shivers up and down my spine. Relations between Russia, the UK and the West. I felt I was living the news or recent history at least and that heightened the scary experience. I got scared for Clive when he meets up with Marina who is an interpreter for the Russian President. He and Marina have history. Now, that was where the tensions really ramped up for me. The atmosphere was electric by this point.
This novel felt fresh and relevant, interesting and compelling. There is SO much to chew on here and I urge you to dive in.
A further gripping instalment of the Arkady Renko series and if this doesn’t ramp things up I don’t know what will. He heads out to the station in Moscow to meet his girlfriend but Tatiana never shows up. She’s a journalist and has just been to Siberia, so where does he go…? But how on earth is he going to find her?
Before leaving for Siberia, Tatiana was working on a story which delved into the life of a presidential candidate who just happens to be standing against Putin…..
He actually ends up going to Siberia on another case, the case of attempted murder no less.
The premise of his journey to Siberia and the very setting itself is not your usual thriller fare. It’s set in the middle of nowhere, in a land we’ll probably never go to (certainly not that bit) and it’s set in the murky world of Russian politics.
Tell you what, it might be murky but it’s a fascinating murky world. There’s politics, behind the scenes politics and the void between rich, obscenely rich and the rest of the population…. Once in Siberia, the landscape takes over and you get thrown in to the raw and visceral atmosphere (with a brown bear of two thrown in for good measure.)
There’s some kick-ass action scenes in this book and it’s a great addition to the Arkady series....more
Get this on your TBR pile. It's an intricate tale involving two timelines and two women with a secret that crosses time and boundaries. There are numerous references to Russian fairytales and folktales and the whole book is a treat to read. The writing is lovely and characters really fascinated me. The author mentions just how passionate she is about the subject of Russian history and heritage and you can tell. I almost felt I was reading a Russian classic....more
I picked this up as I was compelled by it despite not really likening spy novels. Well, this could be the one that turns that on its head! Completely engaging and compelling. This guy has a way of making a complex subject (to me) interesting and page turning!
You can tell the level of research Tim has done to get this story into an easy to understand and navigate thriller. Impressive for a debut!
The setting of the Cold War and the 'war' on so many front between the various spy agencies of various countries was something I had never read before. We are taken to the heart of Mi5 and how an agent is now suspected of being a traitor. There's an atmosphere of suspicion and doubt everywhere and as a reader, I found myself in London, Russia and a few places in between in some of the most claustrophobic settings ever! The secret town in the Russian woods for example was VERY interesting.
Tim really has brought this secretive period of history to life and the tension throughout is passable. There's so much to get your teeth into and I thoroughly enjoyed it. If political history at university had been this interesting.....
For a story that takes the reader through the corridors of power, people and history of 19th century Belarus, that title is interesting! I had no idea what it meant until the end and then, it was an eye opener! This is very hard to describe this novel. It reminded me of the feeling and of the atmosphere of the great Russian writers. War and Peace but more accessible. There’s certain lots of war and peace here too.
Set in what would become Belarus, this is the central story of a Jewish woman who is searching for answers. Now, I ‘m not going to pretend and say I know if she got them all or not,but when searching for on thing, she ends up finding out so much more.
In many ways, this was the story of the Jewish people. Kicked out and kept out of their home. Told they could take one path in life when they wanted another.I know nothing about the Jewish faith of the issues its people face, but this story shows you and helps you emphasis. Even at its core, take out the Jewish question and you still have a struggle to stand up for individual rights.
It’s ambitious, wide in scope, dazzling, beguiling and a work of some detail and determination. That cover does it proud.
This is a book that is going to mean so may different things to so many different people. But for me, the first book I’ve read that’s brought me some understanding of the Jewish culture and history – this will stay with me....more
Set across two continents, Tiger is set in London and Siberia which transports the reader into a wild environment where tigers rule.
Starting off in England, in a fictional zoo, we meet Frieda who is a primatologist, working with the animals she so loves. A violent attack changes everything and shatters her world. It’s a signal to change her life, move away and start something new. So, she finds a new role in a zoo far away from where she lived before. This is going to again change her life, but in more positive ways and in a way she could never have foreseen. She is there to take care of a tiger cub from Siberia.A huge vast area of land where animals rule and where “humans live on the edge of wilderness”
Meanwhile in the Siberian Taiga, the most remote part of Russia, Tomas, a conservationist there is worried that the animal world is in extreme danger. This is the raw, wild land where the tigers roam but the king tiger has been killed by poachers and so the whole natural order has been shattered. In his place, a tigress now patrols the landscape as her own.
The stories of Frieda, Tomas, and the tigers weave together in a story that brings threads of so many emotions and themes together. Marginalisation, motherhood, hierarchy and environment to name but four. This is a story of how worlds can be broken then repaired, brought back together and formed into something even stronger than before. The stories of animal and human are very similar and this is what fascinated me about the novel. The writing is exquisite and draws you in to a world where the writer talks about animals and humans so you feel and sympathise with both. There’s some deft plotting here and some even more deft and impressive research. This novel takes you places you never expect to go in one novel and it was a fascinating journey.
I think the location of Siberia really made the novel extra special. This is not somewhere we know much about. I am not familiar with the landscape or the world of tigers, but the author took me there and I was astounded, fascinated and enthralled in equal measure.
How similar we are when you really think about it. How we think and react about home, love, loneliness, the threat of losing our home, our young, how to survive….all explored here. Comparing and melting the two worlds of animals and humans together was unexpected and totally captivating.
A stunning novel and so many layers to this Siberian set wonder. The location is the character which brings it all together on a backdrop of impressive scope....more
Ha! Well even before I do the BookTrail for this and the full review, I just want to say how blinking brilliant this book is. Meeting someone backpacking and tagging along on their journey sounds fun right? Oh it's so twisty and dark in the hands of Miss Holliday!
I was applauding this throughout and especially at the end! Deliciously dark and a dam good read too. Just read Louise Beech's 5 star review. I second that!
During a farm auction in the Stockholm archipelago, a dead man is found in a coffin. That is not strange in itself, except he’s been chopped in half and has some unsightly symbols engraved on his forehead. When it becomes apparent that this man was the head of the Swedish Migration Board, all hell breaks loose. The police start to investigate his work which was very sensitive to many.
He’s only the first high-ranking Swede to fall victim to this killer….
The Swedish archipelago is a important setting with a lot of meaning for this thriller. Roslagen is the name of the northern part of the archipelago and the island of Arholma is where the Estonian cemetery is in the story. Estonian Swedes fled from Soviet troops during World War II and many of them ended up at Björkö-Arholma in Roslagen. This area is therefore very historically interesting and where the novel really comes into its own by mixing fact and fiction.
We hear of the Kursk and its role in the war, the significance of the islands since and during the war and the link between Russia, Estonia and Sweden. Too much to mention in one review but believe me , it’s a fascinating part of history.
The thriller plot, combined with the level of research and history really makes this novel shine. It’s a tough and gripping read which I was enthralled by throughout....more
When a book starts like this, you know it’s going to be good:
“A black Mercedes followed her all the way from the gates of the university to the Griboyelov Canal. The car was still behind her when she turned onto Nevsky Prospekt.”
Martin Österdahl definitely knows how to grip the reader from the start. When someone is being followed, and in Russia, you know it’s not going to end well, but start a thriller in a very exciting way indeed.
With the book set in 1990s Russia, I came to this with a host of expectations and some degree of knowledge. There’s the fall of the wall, communism, the revolution and the political games with the west. There’s also a technological revolution ongoing here which affects Swedish communications. And that’s just for starters…
The premise of Max and Pashie which will continue in future books (I’ve read these out of order, but no matter) sets things up nicely. Max is an interesting character and despite the book largely set in Russian the Swedish background and therefore Max’s comes through loud and clear.
There’s a lot of meat on this novel and inkeeping with that analogy, a lot to chew on. You do feel satisfied at the end though when the stories come together and you sit back and see the bigger picture. It’s certainly a lot of fun getting there....more
This is such a heartbreaking read, it took me ages to be able to sit down and write this review. I honestly don’t think there are any words to do this book justice. It made me cry, think, want to sit silently for a while and let it soak in. How this woman and her family survived this horror, how Dalia managed to write it all down. Then think of burying the evidence so the KGB wouldn’t find it. It deserves to be published , translated and spread far and wide.
We start off in Kaunas, the then capital of Lithuania where Dalia is just fourteen. She is forced to endure a seemingly endless journey of deportation with her mother and brother. What makes this all the more remarkable is that her buried story was found in 1991. That’s not that long ago. Think of that as you read as it will make this even more poignant.
Moscow had ordered mass deportations from all the Baltic states—Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. I admit that I knew nothing about this and had never really thought about these countries during the war. We hear of stories in Germany, Poland and Russia but not the Baltic states.
The story and journey are hard to read at times. Dalia is transported like cattle in a truck, then by train. The journey lasts for days, weeks, months. The final destination is bad enough but along the way the train stops to unload some of the human cargo. The most valuable cargo travels on further to the working labour camp in Siberia.
This battle has many highs and lows. As the train stops somewhere, the people on board dream of where they might be. A new start. New hope. You can only imagine the dire circumstances, the stench of the train, the fear in the people. Few words needed to bring this across.
The journey as a whole is heartbreaking and cruel. How people can treat other humans like this is beyond me. Despite this, it was the humanity and friendships forged between the prisoners which really shone through.
I was barely able to read as I reached the part where the gulag is described, but am so glad I did. Dalia and her family showed courage and strength not many people ever have.
The setting of Trofimovsk Island and the workings of the gulag were heartbreaking to read about yet fascinating too. I admire Dalia so much for writing this down. Her voice is being heard and it’s a powerful one....more
What a wonderfully evocative and epic novel. Fancy being transported back to the days of the Russian revolution aA big fat 5 stars from the booktrail!
What a wonderfully evocative and epic novel. Fancy being transported back to the days of the Russian revolution and the fall of the Romanovs? To see how this story could be linked to a woman in present day New York? This is one epic read you will not regret.
If the impeccable research and evocative detail doesn’t impress you then the story will.
It’s hard to explain how emotional I feel after having read this. I have a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes. There’s not many books that you lose yourself in but this is one of mine.
What a story! From one photo I was transported not just via locations but through manyVisit the locations in the book: Booktrail the Last kiss goodbye
What a story! From one photo I was transported not just via locations but through many different emotions as I followed Dominic’s and Rosamund’s story with anticipation. Going back to the 1960s with a story of love and subterfuge was an exciting literary journey and the contrast of the troubled times with the Cold war in the background was a fascinating insight into the period.
I loved Dominic’s and Rosamund’s story, the challenges they faced, the struggles they had to endure and the cloud of suspicion that has hung over both of them ever since. What did happen to Dominic in that jungle? I was dying to find out. Having Rosamund help Abby in the present day was a great way to discover things together with the characters.
The love story is at the centre of course but what a twisting and turning story of hope, secrets and a changing world. So many contrasts which fitted so well together. And it all started with one frozen moment captured on film. A shocking secret buried in time is revealed and the journey to find it is one of the most fascinating I’ve been on in a long while....more
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