Book description
**Shortlisted for the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize** A SUNDAY TIMES BEST BOOK OF 2022 The Times Historical Fiction Book of the Month The truth must come out. In 1963, in a Siberian gulag, former nuclear specialist Valery Kolkhanov has mastered what it takes to survive: the right connections to…
Why read it?
2 authors picked The Half Life of Valery K as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
A story that I did not know about, and it shocked me to find out it is based on reality. It is the story of Ozjorks, a Russian town where, in 1957, during a nuclear explosion, enormous amounts of radiation ended up in the air.
It was shocking to read how the inhabitants became like lab rats. And how a scientist arrives to work on research there and has not been told of the risks. I have great respect for how the writer must have researched the story and then mixed it with fantasy to make a book that kept…
From Judit's list on greatest mix of reality and fiction.
The Half Life of Valery K is perfect for anybody fascinated by the story of Chernobyl. It takes place in the early 1960s in a mysterious unnamed town, known only as City 40, hidden deep in a forest inside the Soviet Union.
A doctor has been tasked with studying the effect of radiation on animals, except that everything he has been told and believes is a lie. It manages to be both brutal and tender, bleak and incredibly beautiful, which is no mean feat.
I devoured it, and I will read it again. I also cried quite a bit.…
If you love The Half Life of Valery K...
These Blue Mountains
A moving story of love, betrayal, and the enduring power of hope in the face of darkness.
German pianist Hedda Schlagel's world collapsed when her fiancé, Fritz, vanished after being sent to an enemy alien camp in the United States during the Great War. Fifteen years later, in 1932, Hedda…
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