Present-day Russia is the setting for this stunning new novel from Robert Harris,
author of the bestsellers Fatherland and Enigma.
Archangel tells the story of four days in the life of Fluke Kelso, a dissipated,
middle-aged former Oxford historian, who is in Moscow to attend a conference on the newly
opened Soviet archives.
One night, Kelso is visited in his hotel room by an old NKVD officer, a former bodyguard
of the secret police chief Lavrenty Beria. The old man claims to have been at Stalin's
dacha on the night Stalin had his fatal stroke, and to have helped Beria steal the
dictator's private papers, 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 an idle inquiry in the Lenin Library soon turns into a murderous chase across
nighttime Moscow and up to northern Russia--to the vast 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 Fatherland with the
meticulous historical detail of Enigma. The result is Robert Harris's most compelling
novel yet.
BOOK REVIEWS
Media Reviews
Publishers Weekly
Sex, violence and violent sex all play a part in Harris's entertaining, well-constructed, intelligently lurid tale, which, along with his first two novels, places him squarely in the footsteps not of "Conrad, Green and le Carre," as the publisher would have it, but of Frederick Forsyth. And, like Forsyth, Harris has yet to write a novel without bestseller stamped on it - including this one.
Library Journal
Among the many benefits of Russian glasnost has been the evolution of espionage fiction into a more cerebral form of international thriller. Archangel is a worthy example of how the history of modern Russia can be woven into a mesmerizing adventure yarn.
Booklist - Gilbert Taylor
Building on his accurate historical sense, Harris inveigles readers with intricate plotting and concrete descriptions of Russia's contemporary "look," rewarding them with a thoroughly thrilling tale.
National Review
...an exceptionally well written, skillfully crafted, continuously gripping thriller.
The New York Times
Powerful, clever...delivers the thrills of Graham Greene. Will keep you on edge until its bizarre conclusion.
The New York Times - Christopher Lehmann-Haupt
After finishing Archangel, when you think about what happens, you find it so outlandish as to defy credibility. But Harris makes you believe it as it's happening. What he does particularly well is evoke the atmosphere of contemporary Russia, not only the physical sense of it but also its threat of violent instability, the howling of its caged wolves.
The Economist
Well-researched and skillfully observed, Archangel examines how Russia's uncompleted history--the "past that carries razors and pair of handcuffs"--continues to affect its attempt at free-market democracy. Underlying the story is the whispered issue of what makes Russia Russian.
Recent Reader Reviews
Rated of 5
by frankenstein21 Good background atmosphere - exciting ending Reasonable writing - but a lot of the plotting is predictable. Would not recommend.
Rated of 5
by arshan this is the best book ever This book has a lot of black suspense, and is very violent and for a very mature audience, but overall the book rocks!!
An epic novel and a thrilling literary discovery, The Orphan Master's Son follows a young man's journey through the icy waters, dark tunnels, and eerie spy chambers of the world's most mysterious dictatorship, North Korea.
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Vivid, daring, and unforgettable, The Printmaker's Daughter shines fresh light on art, loyalty, and the tender and indelible bond between a father and daughter.
After hearing the interview on NPR with the author, Ayad Akhtar, I was intrigued.
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of 5
by frankenstein21
of 5
by arshan
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