BookBrowse Reviews The Half Life of Valery K by Natasha Pulley

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In a mysterious city deep within the Soviet Union, a biochemist and a KGB officer confront their pasts while uncovering diabolical truths at a secret research facility.

Siberia, 1963. Valery Kholkhanov is a gulag prisoner in the far, frozen reaches of the Soviet Union. Imprisoned for several years, the once esteemed biochemist is snatched from this bleak and hopeless existence one morning by a former academic mentor who gives him a chance to serve out his prison term in the mysterious town known only as "City 40." His task: to study the effects of radiation on the local animals and ecosystem. This intriguing premise, rife with foreboding, is the backdrop for an irresistible Cold War thriller in Natasha Pulley's The Half Life of Valery K.

Inspired by real events (see Beyond the Book), Pulley creates the closed city of Chelyabinsk-40 or, simply, City 40, an irradiated district with forests the color of rust nestled opposite a set of nuclear reactors. Within the city is the radioecological research facility residents call the Lighthouse. It is to this beacon that Valery is summoned by the enigmatic and witty Dr. Elena Resovskaya, who was his research supervisor in the 1930s. His escort into the facility is the tall and fit Konstantin Shenkov, KGB officer and head of security, who seems put off by Valery's disheveled and fragile state. Valery's psychological trauma from the gulag is artfully rendered via the most quotidian gestures, as when Shenkov holds the door open for Valery:

"[Shenkov] made it look like the deference of a strong person to a slight one, not an order. Being told to go first only ever meant a cell … Somehow, being asked politely to make that last step himself was worse than being thrown in."

Inside the laboratory, Dr. Resovskaya briefs the scientists about the Lighthouse and why the area was intentionally exposed to radiation by the Soviet government in 1957: to study the effects it might have on an entire ecosystem. Excited for the work but confused by the facility's area radiation maps containing curious and contradictory measurements, Valery sets out into the forests to set up some experiments. When he discovers a hospital-gowned body floating in a nearby marsh, Valery and Shenkov work together to find answers. But as Valery goes deeper down the rabbit hole, memories of a painful past and one monstrous act frustrate his ability to trust even previously close associates.

Like a Russian nesting doll, Pulley wraps the floating body mystery within a larger one, as Valery's research uncovers alarming levels of radiation far beyond what the authorities are telling the public. Suspecting a cover-up of nightmarish proportions, as well as diabolical human trials in a nearby secluded village, Valery and Shenkov build a tentative partnership to root out the truth in an atmosphere of denial and lies. Pulley creates a relatable parallel to Valery in Shenkov, who plays a vital role in Valery's story and comes off just as likable thanks to the author's surgical prose:

"Throwing your hands up at an organization like the KGB was no way to solve anything. You had to join, and then you did as many good things as you could, until the evil was a little bit less. He believed that. Or, he had used to."

As the two men surreptitiously investigate and share their findings, Valery must toe a fine line around the one person who can send him right back to the gulag: Dr. Resovskaya, a delightfully drawn antagonist, who is keen to protect her own professional secrets. Caught between the requirements of the Communist state and his own conscience, Valery embarks on the most desperate gamble of his life. Can he and Shenkov escape City 40? At what cost? Together, they confront an imminent man-made disaster and inhuman scientific experiments while finding in each other those things they thought were lost — hope, love and redemption.

The Half Life of Valery K is a vivid evocation of the Cold War era with a plausible premise, beautifully rendered characters, clever dialogue, well-researched science and a satisfying ending. Readers should make space on the bookshelf and return to this deeply human story again and again.

This review was originally published in The BookBrowse Review in August 2022, and has been updated for the April 2024 edition. Click here to go to this issue.

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