In a surprising, epic story that spans decades and continents—from 1950s Moscow to 1960s America to the Soviet war in Afghanistan in the 1980s—Leo’s long pursuit of justice will force him to confront everything he ever thought he knew about his country, his family, and himself.
“The safest way to write a diary was to imagine Stalin reading every word. Even exercising this degree of caution there was the risk of a slipped phrase, accidental ambiguity – a misunderstood sentence. Praise might be mistaken for mockery, sincere adulation taken as parody. Since even the most vigilant author couldn’t guard against every possible interpretation, an alternative was to hide the diary altogether, a method favoured in this instance by the suspect, a young artist called Polina Peshkova.”
This was a bit of a let down. The first book is the best, a front-loaded trilogy.
3.5* Child 44
3* The Secret Speech
2.5* Agent 6