Snowdrops is narrated by 30-something British expat lawyer, Nick, working on big corporate loan deals in Moscow. It is told in the form of a letter to Nick's fiancee in which he explains the events of one winter in Moscow, when he allowed himself to be complicit in fraudulent deals.
The descriptions of post-Cold War Moscow, of the changing of seasons and the characteristics of its residents were convincing. I felt as if I knew the city and could feel what it would be like to live there. I have lived in eastern Europe (Dresden) and I really got a sense of the cold winters and the downtrodden people battling with each other and the authorities to get along in life. The author was a Russian correspondent for The Economist magazine so I felt I could trust his portrayal of Nick and the expat's view of Moscow.
The story has two main threads. It begins with Nick meeting the young and mysterious Masha on the Metro. They begin an affair and he becomes infatuated with her. He becomes suspicious of her as she introduces him to her 'aunt' Tatiana Vladimirovna, an elderly widow, as she pushes through a deal to move Tatiana from her central-Moscow appartment. Nick knows things aren't right and even allows himself to be conned out of a large sum of money but does nothing to stop the deal. Whilst this is going on, Nick is also involved in a shady deal at work. A dodgy Cossack is borrowing huge sums of money for an oil project that doesn't exist and Nick and his colleagues are signing off the loans thinking only of their bonuses and ignoring their own doubts.
Ok, so the plot doesn't sound thrilling and it isn't meant to. Perhaps it would have been if Nick had a conscience and risked his life and career to stop these shady deals. But he doesn't, and that's the point. The pace of the novel is slow and menacing, we know something bad is going on but the pace remains steady and this is what makes the book special. It wasn't until I'd finished the book and read reviews and discussions and thought about it that I appreciated the complexities and depth. It reminds me somewhat of The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters in that the narrator seems harmless enough until you stop to think about the things he does and choices he makes.
That the narrator is telling the story as a letter to his fiancee adds an extra layer of depth to the novel. Throughout Nick has a somewhat intolerant and dysfunctional relationship with his family. He is frustrated by their normality and by his drift towards middle-age with little to show for it. As an expat myself I can relate to this - the need to put distance between yourself and your family and the need to do something special, something different with your life. There are little hints throughout that his relationship with his fiancee is doomed - he doesn't really want children but he will for her, she doesn't understand why he can't tolerate his ordinary, harmless mother and finally, the nail in the coffin for his marriage, declaring 'I miss Masha' at the end. I expect one or the other calls of the wedding soon after - presumably her as Nick would lack the integrity and courage.
This book is on the Booker longlist. I think it is good enough to make the shortlist but perhaps not to win. It does stand up to discussion and may stand out in the judges' debates. It would be an excellent reading group choice too.
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