Description
Book Synopsis1919, Siberia.
Deep in the unforgiving landscape a town lies under military rule, awaiting the remorseless assault of Bolsheviks along the Trans-Siberian railway. One night a stranger, Samarin, appears from the woods with a tale of escape from an Arctic prison, insisting a cannibal is on his trail. Only Anna, a beautiful young widow, trusts his story. When a local shaman is found dead, suspicion and terror engulf the isolated community, which harbours a secret of its own . . .
Trade ReviewA quite extraordinary novel . . . the language is so fresh and crisp and sparkling. And what a narrative! What a story! -- PHILIP PULLMAN
Magnificent and beautifully written . . . such a truly Russian novel, with its huge horizons, it is an exceptional event in English literature -- ANTONY BEEVOR
Spellbinding. Though set in the past, this feels like the most contemporary fiction you'll ever read . . . A truly great read -- Irvine Welsh * * Guardian * *
Has the strangeness and clarity of a dream. This is historical fiction that transcends the genre - as intense as a thriller, imagined on an epic scale * * The Times * *
The best and most original book that I have read for years -- LOUIS DE BERNIÈRES
A strikingly unusual and ambitious novel . . . Violence and sensuality commingle in a tense, complex thriller with the sweep and flavour of Russia * * Sunday Telegraph * *
This remarkable and ambitious book succeeds as a savagely colourful, always astonishing entertainment of elegant and bold storytelling -- Simon Sebag Montefiore * * Evening Standard * *
A powerfully realised novel . . . supremely well plotted * * Observer * *
Once in a while a novel comes along that is so startlingly original as to defy categorisation . . . This is powerful storytelling indeed * * Mail on Sunday * *
Dazzling . . . Meek has created a unique story, distinctively Russian * * Spectator * *
