“A heady noseful of MOSCOW” – book set in Russia
- Book: Snowdrops
- Location: Moscow, Russia
- Author: A D Miller
Snowdrops by A D Miller – “A heady noseful of Moscow, an intoxicating perfume that will whirl you off your feet” Spectator
Welcome to Moscow. The city of duplicitous speculators, thieving chancers, corrupt villains, well-endowed women and hapless Nick, from England, who is doing a few years as a lawyer in the Russian capital. Descriptions of the city, its people and the trials of life engendered by the often inclement weather give the storyline a superb background, peppered with little snippets of information that will never fail to inform and entertain. This is a perfect book for the TripFiction website!
It is the story of Nick, a Russophile, who encounters Masha and Katya on the subway (which is beautifully described by the author, his descriptions will resonate with anyone who is familiar with it: “The old part of the Moscow Metro, in the city centre, is the sort of subway system you get if you give a tyrannical maniac all the marble, onyx, and disposable human beings he can dream of”…. But I digress…). He falls for Masha and his commitment to her grows as they wade through the mokri sneg (damp snow), ski in the city, head out to a dacha and help ‘aunt’ Tatiana Vladimirovna to relocate from the centre of the city to Butovo, on the outskirts. There are several storylines that are interwoven in this delightful novel, that reads as quickly and intensely as if it were a novella: the body that turns up when the snow melts (the snowdrop of the title) the Kossak who keeps Nick and Paolo, his boss at work, well occupied the conspiracy of girls and of course, the city itself! A pleasure to read and even more so for those who are familiar with the city.
“Strips away the layers of life in the Russian capital with subtle, pitiless grace….”
LITERARY REVIEW
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