Novels set behind the Iron Curtain.

iguana · 05-09-2014 10:11pm #1

Has anyone any recommendations for cold war era novels, set mainly in the Soviet/Warsaw Pact countries. Not really looking for apt stuff, unless the day to day lives of the characters is what drives the story.

tim3000 · 05-09-2014 10:17pm

One day in the life of Ivan Denisovitch (set in a Gulag) and Cancer ward by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn are quite good.

Aenaes · 06-09-2014 9:47am

Martin Cruz Smith's crime novels, Gorky Park and Polar Star and Red Square. The first takes place in 1980's Moscow, the second is during "Perestroika" and the third takes place in Moscow, Munich and Berlin during the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The Dogs Of Riga by Henning Mankell. It starts off in Sweden, 1991. A life raft washes in to shore containing two dead bodies, Swedish detective travels to Latvia to find some answers. He finds a country struggling to deal with life after the Soviet Union.

Eramen · 07-09-2014 3:14pm

Red Plenty by Francis Spufford

As mentioned above almost anything by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn is good.

iguana · 08-09-2014 10:45pm

Thanks, I'll definitely check some of those out.

goose2005 · 08-09-2014 11:57pm

The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Eoin · 11-09-2014 9:40pm

Aenaes wrote: »

Martin Cruz Smith's crime novels, Gorky Park and Polar Star and Red Square. The first takes place in 1980's Moscow, the second is during "Perestroika" and the third takes place in Moscow, Munich and Berlin during the collapse of the Soviet Union.

I'm enjoying those books.

There's also the Leo Demidov series by Tom Rob Smith, though I think they might be pre-cold war era.

fisgon · 05-10-2014 5:10pm

Under the Frog by Tibor Fischer. Read it years ago, but I do remember it to be darkly comic. Set in Hungary.

Jinonatron · 09-10-2014 6:29am

Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith is set in the Soviet Union where a detective is investigating murders inspired by the real life ripper of rostov

Schrodingercat · 15-10-2014 10:24am

"In the first circle" by Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn.

Its a while since I read it, but I remember it being really good.

+1 for Gorky park as well.

cack_handed · 15-10-2014 4:51pm

Schrodingercat wrote: »

"In the first circle" by Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn.

Its a while since I read it, but I remember it being really good.

+1 for Gorky park as well.

Another hearty endorsement for Gorky Park here, great crime novel and also an excellent big screen adaption with William Hurt and Brian Dennehy among the cast. Also read Polar Star, not quite as good, but still hugely enjoyable and keen to get into the rest of the Arkady Renko canon

Eoin · 15-10-2014 4:59pm

I'm reading Red Square (the 3rd book in the series) at the moment, and it's a bit flat compared to the first 2.

Rosy Posy · 17-10-2014 11:47am

The House of Meetings by Martin Amis. +1 on The Unbearable Lightness of Being, or anything by Milan Kundera.

Manach · 17-10-2014 12:00pm

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn++.
For some factual details, there is the work of historical work of Richard Pipes and more recently the travel/biography writer Oliver Bullough.

Novels set behind the Iron Curtain.

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