pickA very good almost great novel which deserves its Booker listing in 2005. A depleted band of Czech soldiers are stranded in Siberia in 1919 following an atrocity. They are awaiting the onslaught-of the reds Their precariousness is made more apparent by the Christian sect in the town, the presence of a young widow working out her own destiny and the arrival of the enigmatic intellectual Samarin. A great read
This was what civil war must always look like, the untended fields, uncropped grass and weeds hiding old furrows,lumps in the distance where folks had made a bit of hay for their yard cows. Neglect, rather than wounds, a country gone bald, wrinkled , lame and unwashed
Just finished the fourth chapter of this dense and dark novel. It‘s character as an homage to the great Russian novel is already apparent. Snow, trains dislocated and disaffected soldiers and seemingly random acts and events determining individual fates. Oh and of course a lonely and beautiful woman, Anna Petrovna, who I am just about to meet properly. Delicious! Oh and how could I forget escaped convicts and very dark humour!
Just started reading this over breakfast in a campus cafe. Two people have come up to me to say how much they enjoyed it! Very promising …
The People's Act of Love: A Novel | 
