The Betrayal
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Review
Enthralling. Emotionally gripping . . . ordinary people struggling against a city's beautiful indifference, and clinging on for dear life (Daily Telegraph )
Beautifully crafted, gripping, moving, enlightening. Sure to be one of the best historical novels of the year (Time Out )
Scrupulous, pitch-perfect. With heart-pounding force, Dunmore builds up a double narrative of suspense (Sunday Times )
Magnificent, brave, tender . . . with a unique gift for immersing the reader in the taste, smell and fear of a story (Independent on Sunday )
A masterpiece. An extraordinarily powerful evocation of a time of unimaginable fear. We defy you to read it without a pounding heart and a lump in your throat (Grazia )
A beautifully written and deeply moving story about fear, loss, love and honesty amid the demented lies of Stalin's last days. I literally could not put it down (Antony Beevor )
Dunmore chillingly evokes the atmosphere of Soviet suspicion, where whispered rumours and petty grievances metastasise into lies and denunciation. A gripping read (Daily Mail )
Meticulous, clever, eloquent. An absorbing and thoughtful tale of good people in hard times (Guardian )
A remarkably feeling, nuanced novel that satisfies the head as well as the heart. This does not read like a retelling of history, but like a draught of real life. With her seemingly small canvas, Dunmore has created a universe (Sunday Herald )
Dunmore's genius lies in her ability to convey the strange Soviet atmosphere of these very Soviet stories using the most subtle of clues (Spectator )
Storytelling on a grand scale (The Times )
Beautifully crafted, gripping, moving, enlightening. Sure to be one of the best historical novels of the year (Time Out )
Scrupulous, pitch-perfect. With heart-pounding force, Dunmore builds up a double narrative of suspense (Sunday Times )
Magnificent, brave, tender . . . with a unique gift for immersing the reader in the taste, smell and fear of a story (Independent on Sunday )
A masterpiece. An extraordinarily powerful evocation of a time of unimaginable fear. We defy you to read it without a pounding heart and a lump in your throat (Grazia )
A beautifully written and deeply moving story about fear, loss, love and honesty amid the demented lies of Stalin's last days. I literally could not put it down (Antony Beevor )
Dunmore chillingly evokes the atmosphere of Soviet suspicion, where whispered rumours and petty grievances metastasise into lies and denunciation. A gripping read (Daily Mail )
Meticulous, clever, eloquent. An absorbing and thoughtful tale of good people in hard times (Guardian )
A remarkably feeling, nuanced novel that satisfies the head as well as the heart. This does not read like a retelling of history, but like a draught of real life. With her seemingly small canvas, Dunmore has created a universe (Sunday Herald )
Dunmore's genius lies in her ability to convey the strange Soviet atmosphere of these very Soviet stories using the most subtle of clues (Spectator )
Storytelling on a grand scale (The Times )
Product Description
Leningrad, 1952. Andrei, a young hospital doctor, and Anna, a nursery school teacher, are forging a life together in the postwar, postsiege wreckage. But their happiness is precarious, like that of millions of Russians who must avoid the claws of Stalin's merciless Ministry of State Security. So when Andrei is asked to treat the seriously ill child of a senior secret police officer, he and Anna are fearful. Trapped in an impossible, maybe unwinnable game, can they avoid the whispers and watchful eyes of those who will say or do anything to save themselves?
The Betrayal is a powerful and touching novel of ordinary people in the grip of a terrible and sinister regime, and a moving portrait of a love that will not be extinguished.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
63 of 64 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Mesmerising story,
By
This review is from: The Betrayal (Hardcover)
The novel opens with an emotional dilemma that gripped me heart and soul. Should Andrei treat an ill child even though he is putting the life of himself and his family at risk? After reading Dunmore's The Siege, it was good to be reunited with Anna and Andrei and see how their lives had turned out (though this book stands alone and you could go straight to it or read The Siege first). They are tender, likeable, brave characters, whose humanity puts them in danger. But this novel is not judgmental of the other characters who live under the restrictions of Stalin's Russia in 1952. We experience the tensions of such lives, the need for survival, the compromises and the unexpected moments of courage. The novel's atmospheric evocation of Russia, the powerful characterisation, and the tense dialogue all make this a good read. In the end,this is a love story that keeps you reading. I opened the book and couldn't stop - I had to know what happened to Anna,Andrei and Kolya. Sparely but poetically written - I feel as though I've seen Anna's green dress and walked in the cold streets with Volkov. I highly recommend this book. Afterwards, it kept going round in my head. A fantastic, emotional and life enhancing read.
19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A sober depiction of life under Stalin,
By
This review is from: The Betrayal (Hardcover)
Having read 'The Siege' and found it absolutely wonderful, I was very interested to read this follow up. As has been pointed out both books stand alone, but they are both worth reading. Andrei and Anna and Kolya, Anna's brother all live together in their apartment, the same apartment they went through the Siege of Leningrad in, and are now having to endure the horror of Stalin's Russia where every neighbour has been turned into a spy and the slightest wrong gesture or slip of the tongue can result in imprisonment and far worse. Andrei is a doctor and although he should never have been called upon for this particular case, ends up taking care of a very sick boy of a fearsome official. This case has been palmed off on to him by another doctor who should have taken it on but is too terrified of the consequence if anything should go amiss with the treatment. The story is based around the real persecution of doctors during the reign of Stalin -the Doctors' Plot - where they were falsely accused of being enemies of the state. So through Andrei, we are witness to the absolute horror of living life under Stalin. If one is to really think what it must have been like to live life in perpetual fear of neighbours, work colleagues, to have no real freedom of speech, it is awful. If you are interested in this book then I am sure that you would be interested in 'Wild Swans', a true story in the era of Mao.
18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The book fans of The Siege have been waiting for.,
By
This review is from: The Betrayal (Hardcover)
I actually missed The Siege when it was first published but I did buy a copy as soon as I had finished The Betrayal. For me The Betrayal is an even better novel and fans of The Siege will not be disappointed.It continues the story of Anna and Andre and their struggle to survive in post-war Soviet Russia. They may no-longer have to boil leather for 'soup' but getting food still mean queuing, perhaps for hours, hoping that the supply will not run out before they reach the head of the queue. The people of Leningrad may no-longer have to worry about the enemy without, but the enemy within is real, nothing has really changed. From the moment that Andre is asked to look at a sick child, the son of Volkov a senior secret-police officer, I had a sense of foreboding. The suspense builds with every page as the main characters, a doctor and nursery teacher, are caught up in a situation from which there is no escape under the Stalinist regime. It made me try to imagine what it would be like to live in a society where you lived in fear of being denounced by 'friends' or neighbours, where 'trust no-one' was a creed you lived by. Then again, can we really condemn the betrayers? Their lives, the lives of their families were also threatened and perhaps they just did what they had to to survive. This is fiction and yet it reads like fact, I believed in the characters, believed that this situation occured. Dunmore takes the reader on a journey into the heart of Soviet Russia, this novel entertains and educates, what more can you ask?
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