Child 44

My friend Anne Zald turned me on to Tom Rob Smith, and suggested I read this book first. It was so hard to read in places because I just knew things were going to go badly downhill for the characters, that I did what I seldom do...I read the last chapter to see how it turned out and then went back and finished the book. Some reviewers say the ending is too pat, but it allowed me to finish the book. It is set in post WWII Moscow for the most part; it's 1953 and Stalin has created a terrorist dictatorship masquerading as the Communist idealistic society. Everyone knows things are broken but no dares even think it, much less say it, lest the secret police take you away in the middle of the night and present you with the "evidence" that you are a traitor.   Our protagonist, "Leo Stepanovich Demidov, an M.G.B. officer with relentless ambition and an unquestioning nature" (NYT review) is called away from a major investigation to deal with the death of a fellow policeman's young son, Arkady. He resents not only being pulled into this thankless task, leaving the field of play in the big investigation to his competitor and enemy, but he must betray his colleague, who believes his son was murdered, in order to be loyal to the state. "It is not morally possible for Leo to contemplate such a question [murder]. As a loyal Soviet ideologue, he must believe that violent crime is a function of capitalist decadence. In a worker’s paradise only political-thought crimes matter. So unguarded children have nothing to fear. And Arkady’s story must be forgotten" (NYT review). As if this is not enough to threaten his status as a war hero and his career, he is then asked to investigate his own wife, Raisa. The dynamics between the two of the are truly complex, mainly because nobody is really honest about anything in Soviet Russia. Does he sacrifice her or protect her? You will find out the significance of the title eventually, but you will be filled with dread throughout the book. The Kafkaesque existence of the characters is reminiscent of those portrayed in novels dealing with North Korea (e.g., Inspector O series by James Church or Star of the North by David John). Additional reviews from The Guardian, Kirkus, The Telegraph. It was also made into a movie.