The Half Life of Valery K: THE TIMES HISTORICAL FICTION BOOK OF THE MONTH

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Pulley's broad perspective distinguishes her work from that of more-routine thriller authors. Studded with memorable characters and deepened by its exploration of thorny moral issues, The Half Life of Valery K is gripping popular entertainment with a pleasing intellectual heft. England, 1964. Valery and Shenkov explore more than their surroundings. Language: English Words: 6,676 Chapters: 1/1 Comments: 12 Kudos: 70 Bookmarks: 10 Hits: 526 But even when I'm let down by some aspects of her work, I'm still utterly in love with it as a whole. The stark forested lake surrounded by marshland. The past reaching forward to clutch at the characters. The quiet glory of it all. I donot understand the POINT of this book. What was the point? We read about actual real life horrific things that have happened to actual real life people and we get that absolute deranged ending ??? I cant believe how absolutely insentive this book was while dealing with such an insensitive topic Amor Towles selects the twenty best mystery short stories of the year, including tales by Andrew Child, Jeffrey Deaver, and Michael Mallory

In 1963, in a Siberian gulag, former nuclear specialist Valery Kolkhanov has mastered what it takes to survive: the right connections to the guards for access to food and cigarettes, the right pair of warm boots to avoid frostbite, and the right attitude toward the small pleasures of life. But on one ordinary day, all that changes: Valery's university mentor steps in and sweeps Valery from the frozen prison camp to a mysterious unnamed town hidden within a forest so damaged it looks like the trees have rusted from within. to say that someone drank more than they should have, but less than they could have. Language: English Words: 1,402 Chapters: 1/1 Comments: 7 Kudos: 24 Bookmarks: 2 Hits: 206 So Valery informs this little girl without either of her parent's consent that, "It’s not something we know how to cure. That means you will probably die of it," further informing her that she will die before she can grow up. Scientific research, KGB shenanigans, queer love, and the heartache of suffering children are just a few of the enriching intricacies Pulley traces with intelligent wit and confident narration. A gifted writer of well-drawn characters, Pulley has given the nuclear noir genre a fresh and stimulating take on Chernobyl-style terror.”— Library Journal The gulag. Natasha Pulley’s writing doesn’t lend itself to brutality. Yes, The Kingdoms was, at times, pretty harsh, but it was told in such a way that you were somewhat removed from it. You could see the harshness, but at a distance. And that worked, for The Kingdoms. It does not work here. Because Valery is supposedly sent to the gulag—and this is where he’s spent a good few years at the start of the book—but it feels somewhat played down, to say the least. It feels like “oh the gulag wasn’t so bad actually”.City 40 really existed and Natasha Pulley based the story on actual (terrifying) events. It caused chills that nestled themselves deep into my bones while my stomach knitted itself constantly in a knot, and showed bitterly sweet moments building up a love story so subtly that I hardly noticed there was a romance at all. Add the rather blunt and simple but exceptionally effective writing and two incredibly flawed but likable main characters, and I cannot do anything but surrender and read all of Natasha’s other books. another point that confused me was when valery spoke of the gulag to the students at the lab, and they were all in disbelief:

I wanted more of the kids , I wanted more of the women because atleast if the men were not only morally depraved but horribly characterised there would be something for me to latch on but no.... Excellent Soviet-era historical fiction with a very compelling main character, this was a great read albeit quite depressing (especially in hindsight as Pulley makes it clear in the afterword that this is very heavily based in reality). This novel follows Valery, a scientist who was sentenced to the gulag during Stalin's regime and who is later transported to City 40 to work on the radiation research being carried out.This one was as predictable as it was unbelievable, I saw it coming from almost the beginning and rolled my eyes every time it was hinted at. At least it was between two men, which I find more palatable than between a woman and man (sorry, straight people), but I loathe reading about romantic feelings. He was in no state to cope with kindness. With no family and no people of your own to build up your resistance to it, kindness was like a triple shot of vodka after being teetotal for years. It went straight to the head. Again, he wanted to ask what was going on; but if she slammed his fingers in the door, his bones would turn to powder. The dialogue in this book was also just tonally all over the place given the events happening in the plot. At one point the main character says “I’m just a little science elf” TO A KGB AGENT. Bro, what?! I felt INSANE.

Return to the world of FIREFLY LANE—now a Netflix series—from #1 New York Times bestselling author Kristin Hannah. You were a child,’ Shenkov said, half over him. He was just on the other side of the door now. Valery touched it, wanting to open it, and not. ‘Anyway, human trials. Tell me how it would work here.’"Readers from Eastern Europe are going to feel weird af about this. Or at least I know I did. The writing is excellent, there's a wide variety of complex characters, it feels like the science was well-researched, but is it really appropriate to have a romance between a former gulag prisoner and a KGB boss? But even ignoring that, the gender stuff and the misogyny was cringy. Every third person in the gulag is an academic,’ he said, slowly, because it was bizarre to stumble across someone who didn’t know that. He had thought the whole world knew. It had all come out after Stalin died, which was why Valery had almost laughed when he found himself being arrested a good three years after that. You could have papier-mâchéd Siberia with the reams of newsprint written about the arrests and the trials, but under no cover but a penitent air, the Kremlin had kept it going all the same. ‘People aren’t sent because of what they’ve done, they’re sent because of what they might do under the right conditions.’