Oldfield, Sybil -:Spinsters of this parish. F.M. Mayor and Mary Sheepshanks - The life and times of F.M. Mayor and Mary Sheepshanks - aus der Reihe: A Virago paperback original - Band: 3915
- Taschenbuch 2010, ISBN: 9780860683919
Gebundene Ausgabe
New York: Random House. Good. 6.75 x 1.25 x 9.75 inches. Hardcover. 1999. First US edition. 373 pages. Name crossed out on ffep.<br>Present-day Russia is the setting for this stunn… Mehr…
New York: Random House. Good. 6.75 x 1.25 x 9.75 inches. Hardcover. 1999. First US edition. 373 pages. Name crossed out on ffep.<br>Present-day Russia is the setting for this stunning new novel from Robert Harris, author o f the bestsellers Fatherland and Enigma. Archangel tells the sto ry of four days in the life of Fluke Kelso, a dissipated, middle- aged former Oxford historian, who is in Moscow to attend a confer ence on the newly opened Soviet archives. One night, Kelso is vi sited in his hotel room by an old NKVD officer, a former bodyguar d of the secret police chief Lavrenty Beria. The old man claims t o have been at Stalin's dacha on the night Stalin had his fatal s troke, and to have helped Beria steal the dictator's private pape rs, among them a notebook. Kelso decides to use his last morning in Moscow to check out the old man's story. But what starts as a n idle inquiry in the Lenin Library soon turns into a murderous c hase across nighttime Moscow and up to northern Russia--to the va st forests near the White Sea port of Archangel, where the final secret of Josef Stalin has been hidden for almost half a century. Archangel combines the imaginative sweep and dark suspense of F atherland with the meticulous historical detail of Enigma. The re sult is Robert Harris's most compelling novel yet. Editorial Rev iews Archangel is a remarkably literate novel--and simultaneous ly a gripping thriller--that explores the lingering presence of S talin amidst the corruption of modern-day Russia. Robert Harris ( whose previous works include Enigma and Fatherland) elevates his tale by choosing a narrator with an outsider's perspective but an insider's knowledge of Soviet history: Fluke Kelso, a middle-age d scholar of Soviet Communism with a special interest in the dark secrets of Joseph Stalin. For years, rumors have circulated abou t a notebook that the aging dictator kept in his final years. In a chance encounter in Moscow, Kelso meets Papu Rapava, a former N KVD guard who claims that he was at Stalin's deathbed and says th at he assisted Politburo member Beria in hiding the black oilskin notebook just as Stalin was passing. Before Kelso can get more d etails, Rapava disappears, but the scholar is energized by the ev idence Rapava has provided. As Kelso begins to pursue his histori cal prize, however, his investigation ensnares him in a living we b of Stalinist terror and murder. It soon becomes clear that the notebook is the key to a doorway hiding many secrets, old and new . Harris's understanding of Soviet and modern Russian is impres sive. The novel rests on a seamless blend of fact and fiction tha t places real figures from Soviet history alongside Kelso and his fictional colleagues. Especially disturbing are the transcripts from interrogations and the excerpt from Kelso's lectures on Stal in; the documents provide chilling evidence to support Kelso's cl aim: There can now be no doubt that it is Stalin rather than Hitl er who is the most alarming figure of the twentieth century. --Pa trick O'Kelley From Publishers Weekly As in his first thriller, Fatherland, Harris again plunders the past to tell an icy-slick s tory set mostly in the present. Readers are plunged into mystery, danger and the affairs of great men at once, as, outside Moscow in 1953, Stalin suffers a fatal stroke, and the notorious Beria, head of Stalin's secret police, orders a young guard to swipe a k ey from the dictator's body, to stand watch as Beria uses it to s teal a notebook from Stalin's safe and then to help bury the note book deep in the ground. These events unfold not in flashback pro per but as told to American Sovietologist C.R.A. Fluke Kelso by t he guard, now an old drunk. Following a lead from the old man's s tory as well as other clues, Kelso, soon accompanied by an Americ an satellite-TV journalist, goes in pursuit of the notebook and, later, the explosive secret it contains; others, including those who cherish the days of Stalin's might, are on the chase as well. With this hunt as backbone, the plot fleshes out in muscular fas hion, fed by assorted conspiratorial interests and a welter of co lorful, if sometimes too obvious (Stalin as madman; Beria as sadi st), characters. The crumbling ruin that is today's Moscow comes alive in the details, which continue as Kelso's search moves nort h into the frozen desolation of the White Sea port of Archangel. Sex, violence and violent sex all play a part in Harris's enterta ining, well-constructed, intelligently lurid tale, which, along w ith his first two novels, places him squarely in the footsteps no t of Conrad, Green and le Carre, as the publisher would have it, but of Frederick Forsyth. And, like Forsyth, Harris has yet to wr ite a novel without bestseller stamped on it?including this one. Simultaneous audio book; optioned for film by Mel Gibson. Copyri ght 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal Ha rris's first novel, Fatherland (LJ 4/1/92), an international best seller, supposed that Hitler had won World War II. His second, E nigma (LJ 10/1/95), another success, hinged on code-breaking in t he same war. In Archangel, Harris switches to modern, unstable Ru ssia and raises another what-if?suppose a very real pro-Stalinist cult wanted to bring back to power one of Stalin's sons. A discr edited Oxford historian and an American TV journalist stumble ove r papers suggesting such a possibility. They stay barely one jump ahead of sinister competing forces in pursuing a twisting tale t hat keeps the reader turning pages almost past the bizarre surpri ses at the end. A former journalist and author of several nonfict ion works, Harris skillfully mixes historical detail and fiction. This is likely to be as big a hit as the earlier two suspense ta les, and libraries everywhere should be prepared. -?Roland C. Per son, Southern Illinois Univ. Lib., Carbondale Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Booklist A possible Communist ( or Facsist) restoration in Russia furnishes promising material fo r fictional espionage (witness Frederick Forsyth's Icon, 1996). H arris posits the existence of hitherto-unknown papers belonging t o Stalin, which vanished into the hands of the notorious secret p olice chief, Beria. This intriguing curtain-raiser is confided to historian Fluke Kelso by Beria's bodyguard. Sensing a historical coup, Kelso finds confirmation of the missing papers in Dmitri V olkogonov's biography of Stalin (Triumph and Tragedy, 1991) and i nterviews one of Volkogonov's sources, a cagey ex-KGB operative. Kelso also tries to recontact Beria's bodyguard, who had held bac k on the location of the papers, by looking for his daughter. He finds both: the father has been butchered, but the daughter is al ive, and she leads Kelso to the papers. They are curiously innocu ous, alluding only to a young girl from Archangel. Kelso's diggin g has by now attracted heavy surveillance from Russian intelligen ce, as well as an unwanted partner in the form of nosy, obnoxious TV reporter R. J. O'Brian, who's itching to break the story of S talin's nubile paramour. So, everyone's off to Archangel, whose d ilapidated state Harris evokes as well as the increasing tension of Kelso's search for the now-elderly girl. Instead of the girl, they turn up her mother, whose story of a baby--the son of Stalin --raised in the surrounding taiga diverts everyone, tailing off i nto the forest for the blazing conclusion and revelation of Joe J unior's political significance. Building on his accurate historic al sense, Harris inveigles readers with intricate plotting and co ncrete descriptions of Russia's contemporary look, rewarding them with a thoroughly thrilling tale. Gilbert Taylor From Kirkus Re views Lg. Prt. 0-375-70412-4 Top-flight thriller, something of a variation on le Carr's The Russia House, as an American historian tracks down a MacGuffin of far greater value than the Maltese fa lcon. Fluke Kelso, having published two books about the fall of t he Soviet empire, finds himself invited to a symposium in Moscow that will supposedly focus on newly released archival material. S ome think Kelso will reveal yet another bombshell. And that might be true, since he has secretly interviewed elderly Papu Rapava, bodyguard of KGB chief Lavrenty Beria, about the night that Stali n died. Rapava observed all as Beria took a key from Stalin's nec k and stole from a safe an oilskin pouch holding the dictators me moirs (an improvisation on the theme of Harris's first book, 1986 's Selling Hitler, about the faking of the Hitler diaries). Later , the pouch was buried in Beria's backyard. The ever-avid Kelso g oes ferreting through some recently declassified papers in the Le nin Library, then hunts up Vladimir Mamantov, a Stalinist fanatic he'd interviewed years ago for his big book about the Soviet col lapse, a book sneered at by Mamantov because it painted Stalin bl ack. Mamantov concedes that in Western terms the man was a monste r, but avers that by Soviet standards he lifted the USSR from the tractor to the atomic bomb. And Mamantov opines to Kelso that St alinism will return: some 20 million Russians still believe Stali n was the greatest figure of the centurya rather large bloc shoul d some other charismatic figure rise anew to lead it once again. After Kelso makes a secret trip to Beria's house and discovers fr eshly turned earth, he falls in with an American TV reporter whil e being tracked by the RT Directorate's chief. Deaths ensue as th e trail leads to the White Sea port of Archangel, where Kelso doe s indeed make a momentous discovery. No personal demons here to s oothe, but Harriss (Enigma, 1995, etc.) knack for re-creating his torical events puts him in very select company. -- Copyright 1998 , Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. Review Praise for ENIGMA Elegant, atmospheric . . . a tense and thoughtful thrill er. --San Francisco Chronicle Literate and savvy . . . It's alw ays a pleasure to encounter a historical thriller this subtle and detailed. . . . [ ] brims with wartime intrigue and paranoia. -- The Washington Post Book World FATHERLAND A stunning debut. --B oston Globe An elegant thriller, a thoughtful, frightening stor y of complicity. --San Francisco Chronicle An absorbing, expert ly written novel. --The New York Times From the Inside Flap Rus sia is the setting for this stunning new novel from Robert Harris , author of the bestsellers Fatherland and Enigma. Archangel tel ls the story of four days in the life of Fluke Kelso, a dissipate d, middle-aged former Oxford historian, who is in Moscow to atten d a conference on the newly opened Soviet archives. One night, K elso is visited in his hotel room by an old NKVD officer, a forme r bodyguard of the secret police chief Lavrenty Beria. The old ma n claims to have been at Stalin's dacha on the night Stalin had h is fatal stroke, and to have helped Beria steal the dictator's pr ivate papers, among them a notebook. Kelso decides to use his la st morning in Moscow to check out the old man's story. But what s tarts as an idle inquiry in the Lenin Library soon turns into a m urderous chase From the Back Cover Praise for ENIGMA Elegant, atmospheric . . . a tense and thoughtful thriller. --San Francis co Chronicle Literate and savvy . . . It's always a pleasure to encounter a historical thriller this subtle and detailed. . . . [ ] brims with wartime intrigue and paranoia. --The Washington P ost Book World FATHERLAND A stunning debut. --Boston Globe An elegant thriller, a thoughtful, frightening story of complicity. --San Francisco Chronicle An absorbing, expertly written novel . --The New York Times About the Author Robert Harris has been a television correspondent with the BBC and a newspaper columnis t for the London Sunday Times. His novels have sold more than six million copies and been translated into thirty languages. He liv es in Berkshire, England, with his wife and three young children. Excerpt. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. To choo se one's victims, to prepare one's plans minutely, to slake an im placable vengeance, and then to go to bed . . . there is nothing sweeter in the world. --J. V. Stalin, in conversation with Kamene v and Dzerzhinsky Olga Komarova of the Russian Archive Service, Rosarkhiv, wielding a collapsible pink umbrella, prodded and shoo ed her distinguished charges across the Ukraina's lobby toward th e revolving door. It was an old door, of heavy wood and glass, to o narrow to cope with more than one body at a time, so the schola rs formed a line in the dim light, like parachutists over a targe t zone, and as they passed her, Olga touched each one lightly on the shoulder with her umbrella, counting them off one by one as t hey were propelled into the freezing Moscow air. Franklin Adelma n of Yale went first, as befitted his age and status, then Molden hauer of the Bundesarchiv in Koblenz, with his absurd double doct orate--Dr. Dr. Karl-bloody-Moldenhauer--then the neo-Marxists, En rico Banfi of Milan and Eric Chambers of the LSE, then the great cold warrior Phil Duberstein, of NYU, then Ivo Godelier of the Ec ole Normale Suprieure, followed by glum Dave Richards of St. Anto ny's, Oxford--another Sovietologist whose world was rubble--then Velma Byrd of the U.S. National Archive, then Alastair Findlay of Edinburgh's Department of War Studies, who still thought the sun shone out of Comrade Stalin's ass, then Arthur Saunders of Stanf ord, and finally--the man whose lateness had kept them waiting in the lobby for an extra five minutes--Dr. C.R.A. Kelso, commonly known as Fluke. The door banged hard against his heels. Outside, the weather had worsened. It was trying to snow. Tiny flakes, as hard as grit, came whipping across the wide gray concourse and s pattered his face and hair. At the bottom of the flight of steps, shuddering in a cloud of its own white fumes, was a dilapidated bus, waiting to take them to the symposium. Kelso stopped to ligh t a cigarette. Jesus, Fluke, called Adelman, cheerfully. You loo k just awful. Kelso raised a fragile hand in acknowledgment. He c ould see a huddle of taxi drivers in quilted jackets stamping the ir feet against the cold. Workmen were struggling to lift a roll of tin off the back of a truck. One Korean businessman in a fur h at was photographing a group of twenty others, similarly dressed. But of Papu Rapava, no sign. Dr. Kelso, please, we are waiting a gain. The umbrella wagged at him in reproof. He transferred the c igarette to the corner of his mouth, hitched his bag up onto his shoulder, and m, Random House, 1999, 2.75, London - : Virago Books - , 1984. Broschur (Paperback) - . 21 x 14 x 3 cm - Oktav. mit starken Gebrauchsspuren - deutlich berieben und bestoßen mit Randläsuren, mit einem Stempel eines Vorbesitzers, deutlich nachgedunkelt, - - aus der Bibliothek von Hanna Behrend (Wien 1922 - Berlin 2010) mit dementsprechendem Stempel im hinteren Nachsatz, - - intern288-3698, Virago Books -, 1984, 0<
