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CHILD 44
by Tom Rob Smith
Simon & Schuster, March 2008
480 pages
12.99 GBP
ISBN: 1847371264


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

The action of Tom Rob Smith's magnificent work is set in the 1950s, during the closing years of the Stalinist regime. The prologue occurs two decades before that with two young brothers hunting a cat in the desperately poor and starving Ukrainian village of Chervoy. Pavel, the elder of the two, is captured by an unkempt, wild man and the boy knows that he, like the cat, is destined for the cooking pot.

The action then jumps 20 years in time and to Moscow. Jora and his younger brother Arkady are playing in the snow. A certain rivalry erupts with the elder wishing never to see his winning sibling again.

War hero and member of the MGB, Leo Stepanovich Demidov, must tell his underling Fyodor Andreev that his younger son died as a result of his own carelessness and neglect, certainly not as the result of the malign actions of an adult. Arkady was killed by a train and the dirt in the corpse's mouth was easily explained by his being dragged by the train after the fatal impact.

Leo is an obedient functionary who obeys his superiors without question. He has a beautiful wife, Raisa, whom he assumes loves him. No doubt he would be distressed if, somehow, he learned of her hatred of him. He is addicted to methylamphetamine (which, despite the author's protestations is not a narcotic but a stimulant) which he swallows in large amounts in order to remain awake and alert despite his long working hours.

Everybody knows that crime, and especially serial crime, does not exist in Soviet Russia. Thus, when the bodies of naked children, their stomachs removed and their mouth filled with bark, are discovered, Leo and his subordinates – especially Vasili, who at once loathes Leo and covets his position – are convinced the deaths are simple aberrations, easily explained. But then Leo begins to wonder and sets in motion his own illicit investigation.

This is a superb book, especially as a debut novel. The prose is incredibly evocative: the paranoia of the people is brought to life in startling detail. The characterisation is beautifully done with the mistrust of people, even within the one family, made abundantly and heartbreakingly clear. The despair of officials who know they have been betrayed by their own subordinates seems inevitable.

There is no doubt that a great deal of research has gone into the production of this work. Even so, the book easily outstrips tales that rest on research alone. The author has managed to recreate the era together with all the fear and doublethink of the time.

There are great strengths to this novel. The quality of the prose together with the plotting, characterisation and research have combined to produce a book which will not be easy to forget.

Reviewed by Denise Pickles, February 2008

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