by David Szalay
First published 2010
Spring 1948. Major Aleksandr arrives at a remote psychiatric clinic in the Ural mountains. The MGB has sent him to investigate Anatoly Yudin, a patient who should not exist. Yudin was once a celebrated pianist. The war left him severely disabled. Everyone believed he had died. Twenty-four years pass. The summer of 1972 brings Nixon to Moscow and the Fischer-Spassky chess match. The Cold War softens into détente. Aleksandr finds his Stalinist convictions crumbling. The certainties that once gave his life structure now feel hollow. He returns obsessively to the Yudin case. He searches his memories for answers about what happened in that mountain clinic. The investigation changed him in ways he struggles to understand. It affected everyone he cared about most. Aleksandr must confront how the case shaped his life and the lives of those around him. The past refuses to stay buried.
Genres: historical-fiction, 20th-century, mystery, political-thriller
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, thought-provoking
Tropes: unreliable-narrator
Setting: Moscow, Ural Mountains
Period: 1948, 1972
Hardcover · Ulverscroft Large Print Books Ltd
Content warnings: mental-illness