Harrowing

Powerful stuff: how terrible it must have been under Stalin's regime. Russian novels are renowned for their relentless gloom; this novel about Russia seeks to outdo even them. With our victims locked in the depths of prison, I just had to give up, I couldn't take any more.

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Extremely good

Until I read this book I didn't realise how much would enjoy his genre of book. I'm already a huge fan of his wife Santa. I would not be a huge fan of biographies but because this was truth in the form of a novel. I loved it

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Disturbing

Weather its history or fiction i've always found anything to do with the Soviet Union/Russia to be scary and depressing.And i'm thankful that i wasnt born in any era of that Country. I've read the 3 books in this series and though i enjoyed them i won't be listening to them again as i found all 3 novel's sad,depressing and without hope.

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totalitarian nightmare

What did you like most about One Night in Winter?

The main theme, the arrest of a group of teenagers, friends of the victim of two murders during the victory parade in Moscow in 1945, encapsulates the cruelty and topsy turvy world of the Stalin regime. The crudity of the interrogators and of the top apparatchiks is vividly cnveyed. Tension is built up in a series of episodes with clues to suggest that each one will potentially incriminate the actors. We know this but don't quite see how. So we have to go on listening to find out how it will be used and distorted by the authorities. Stalin is a sinister backround presence, a mixture of bonhomie and menace.The element of irony comes from the striving by the parents of the teenagers to be "good bolsheviks", which means suppressing normal human feelings. Scenes of almost unbearable brutality are juxtaposed with scenes of what seem to be normal enjoyment. The writing could be more economical : there are to many adjectives and too many brutal incidents. The love scenes are OK but a bit overdone.

What other book might you compare One Night in Winter to, and why?

Hans Fallada's Alone in Berlin, also describes life under a brutal totalitarian regime, but because the writing is more economical, the effect is stronger

Which scene did you most enjoy?

The early scene where the teenagers in the Pushkin club meet to re-enact the duel between Onegin and Lensky in Eugene Onegin., which perfectly captures teenage innocence and enthusiasm, and hero worship of the cub leader,but at the same time one senses that it will all go horribly wrong

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Not really. I should have wanted to cry and perhaps I nearly did when very young children were brought into the Lubianka, missing their Mums and bedtime toys, but generally nausea is a more accurate description of my emotional reaction. Possibly that was intended.

Any additional comments?

It was very well read,especially, given that the narrator is male, when women or girls were often speaking. Local accents were convincing.

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2 people found this helpful

Good fiction

Loved the story though it was in history section so thought it was non-fiction. It is a novel but brilliant!

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1 person found this helpful

Reader's voice almost unbearable

The story is captivating but Slater's very odd breathing patterns and strange mouth sounds, along with the obvious editing performed to hide this, rendered this audio book almost unlistenable. I would never buy another audio book narrated by him again. Very annoying in the extreme.

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2 people found this helpful

Good story and performance, terrible editing

Story and reading both good, but editing inexplicably bad: Joins that should have been unnoticeable often marked by fluctuations in background sound level; uneven pauses in narration; and worst, an unsettling absence of pauses between chapters.

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Very absorbing thriller

Any additional comments?

- a great beach read/listen, immerses you in the world and the period. The narrator was very good at defining the different characters.

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Brilliant storytelling

loved this book along with the other two of the Moscow trilogy. Found it harrowing at times and very uplifting at others but was compelled to finish all three books as aware many people perished at the hands of this evil dictatorship and nominee should be ignorant of how things were at this time in the history of Russia.

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excellent read-or listen

well written account of daily family life at different levels and times in Stalin's Russia. just what you would expect from a master of his subject such a SSM. this is the only novel of his that i have read, so far at least. the court of the red tsar was a great factual account of the whole era. i certainly recommend this to anyone interested in Stalin or the USSR under his leadership, but who wants a bit of fiction.

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