One Night in Winter

May 15, 2014

Award-winning historian Montefiore's second foray into fiction (after Sashenka) revolves around the families of Joseph Stalin's elite cadre of advisers. A group of students at Stalin School 101, the alma mater of Stalin's two children, form a secret club devoted to the poetry of Alexander Pushkin. As teenagers secure in wealth and position, they reenact romantic duels from their favorite poems in fancy dress, oblivious to the suffering and fear building in the postwar Soviet Union. When one of their stunts ends in a fatal shooting, the teens end up in prison. The conspiracy soon engulfs the teens' siblings, parents, and teachers. Secrets, lies, and accusations multiply in a state where everyone is under suspicion. Basing his book on an actual murder case from 1945, Montefiore incorporates fictional families among historical figures such as Stalin and his secret police chief, Lavrentiy Beria. He does an excellent job of portraying the paralyzing tension of powerful high-ranking Soviet officials who are powerless to protect their own families and the chaos of a society where brothers denounce brothers and children denounce parents. VERDICT Highly recommended reading for fans of thrillers, historical fiction, and history. [See Prepub Alert, 11/3/13.]--Catherine Lantz, Univ. of Illinois at Chicago Lib.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2014
British historian Montefiore turns in his second novel, a foreboding tale of Soviet Russia based on actual events.Given that Montefiore is a biographer of The Boss (Young Stalin, 2007, etc.), it's fitting that, as in Anatoly Rybakov's Children of the Arbat-whose spirit looms over this book-Josef Stalin should appear as a central character in this odd drama. Less usual, perhaps, is that Stalin has sympathetic moments: Late in the story, we find him reclining on a sofa, smoking a cigarette and thinking of lost love: "If only there had been more love in my life, he thought despondently, but we Bolsheviks are a military-religious order like the Knights Templar." The romantic and slightly gloopy image suits the larger story, which concerns a class of well-heeled, privileged children who attend a school that's out of Dead Poets Society, if with pictures of Lenin instead of Lord Byron. Young Andrei Kurbsky, from out in the sticks of the Soviet Empire, doesn't share their high status, but, a devotee of Pushkin, he nonetheless is swallowed up in a floppy-haired beatnik-manque clique that adores the Romantic poets. That's not such a smart move in an age when socialist realism is the only acceptable aesthetic, and Stalin-the sire of less-than-accomplished offspring, as we see-is as ruthless with the children of his own confidants as he is with his political enemies. Though the narrative lags at times, and though Montefiore sometimes inclines to the didactic ("The title 'Comrade' means Rimm was a member of the Communist Party"), the storyline is unusual enough to keep things moving. The characters, too, are strong and believable, all careening toward a fateful day. Though his novel is based on history and told with a historian's concern for detail, Montefiore notes in an afterword that his is "not a novel about power but about private life-above all, love." Yet, of course, it's power that moves things to their grim conclusion.A kind of Virgin Suicides for the Soviet set, speaking to much that's dark in the human soul-but to what can redeem it, too.

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April 15, 2014
Sudden, mysterious arrests. Brutal interrogations. The crushing of any hint of antigovernment thought. Constant, stomach-churning terror. Such is the reality of Stalinist Russia evoked so convincingly by Montefiore. As an acclaimed biographer and historian of the period, he has the oppressive atmosphere down cold. In his second novel, based on historical incidents, he heightens tension further by focusing on imaginative young people. In 1945 Moscow, a group of teenagers, sons and daughters of the Bolshevik elite, act out a scene from their favorite romantic poet, Pushkin. When two are shot to death, the rest are accused of subversive activity. Their situation worsens when a velvet-covered notebook from their play-acting club is discovered. The web of suspicion spirals outward to encompass their teachers and parents, who must feign approval of their children's incarceration in the Lubyanka prison or face charges of party disloyalty. Stepping back, Montefiore then reveals two passionate affairs the participants have reason to conceal. Some potentially intriguing individual stories remain underexplored, but overall, this is a gripping, fast-moving tale of love, fear, sacrifice, and survival.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)