Child 44
by Tom Rob Smith
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Book Summary Information
Author: Tom Rob SmithEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-04-29
ISBN: 0446402389
Number of pages: 448
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Product features:
- Child 44
- love
- thriller
- Tom Rob Smith
- terrifying
Book Reviews of Child 44
Book Review: "A guardian of the state had become its prisoner, not an uncommon reversal of fortune."
Summary: 5 Stars
Set in Stalin's Soviet Union circa 1953, Child 44 is a dramatic, troubling tale of life under a repressive system that controls its citizens by regimentation and fear. Although the novel begins with the separation of two young brothers from a starving Ukrainian village in 1933, the events of that one day set in motion a terrible series of crimes that surface twenty years later, just prior to Stalin's death. The protagonist, Leo Demidov, is a member of the State Security, the MGB, rigorously performing his assigned duties, arresting accused traitors for questioning, their sad fates ordained the moment these unfortunates are arrested. Days before his life is altered by the mischief of another, Leo is assigned an unusual case, the mutilated corpse of a child, of necessity declared an accident. There are no crimes, no mistakes in the Soviet Union, a rigid hierarchy that controls the population with propaganda and terror, survival the currency of repression, people accusing others in order to save themselves.
Buoyed by his investigative instincts and sense of invincibility, Leo has built an enviable life; when all that is necessary to establish guilt is accusation, it is not surprising when the finger of suspicion points at Leo, a jealous rival facilitating his fall. Leo has had no quarrel with his life, avoiding introspection until he and Raisa are the targets. Leo is demoted, the couple sent to a remote country village as punishment for an error in judgment. Once Leo is stripped of his power, the marriage is revealed as a sham. Raisa demands total honesty or she cannot stay. Then another child is found murdered, eerily similar to the one in Moscow, Leo caught in an impossible conundrum, not authorized to investigate crimes that do not exist in the eyes of the government. It is Leo's profound emotional journey that is the heart of this intriguing, provocative novel. With Raisa as the catalyst for a dormant conscience, Leo risks everything to accomplish one good thing before the long arm of the MGB reaches out once more to deal another blow. For Leo is not deceived: his punishment has only begun, a reprieve before a final reckoning.
Relentless, Smith contrasts Leo's awakening in an environment meant to stifle individuality, Leo's soul blooming against a frozen landscape where horrors are perpetrated by a madman and a government that cannot bear scrutiny. This protagonist does not survive unscathed, battered by a government meant to intimidate, to silence dissension. The rigid constraints of a lifetime give way to Leo's quest for justice, a surprising tie to a forgotten past adding unexpected complications, Leo and Raisa under constant threat from one man's determination to see Leo punished for his earlier successes. The prose is consistent, compelling, the plot brilliantly sustained until the inevitable confrontation with the MGB. Dredging unexpected moments of humanity from morality's massive graveyard, Smith has written a stunning indictment of political repression in collision with hope. Luan Gaines/ 2008.
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