Come With Me by Nicola Viceconti - Translated by Laura Bennett - #BookReview

 

"Paris, 19th July 2015

They tricked us, Franco. They tricked us! They duped us with their ideology, their propaganda and their imaginary paradise of justice and liberty. They destroyed us. They wiped out our love, as if peoples' hearts were anything to do with them. You understood what they were like before I did. No soul and no conscience! That's what you said that time at the hospital. How could anyone be indifferent? The time to tell people has come. Please. You're someone who can, so do it for me too!"

Just a handful of words before Irina vanished into the darkness. She was thin, very thin, if it hadn't been for her unmistakable eyes, I wouldn't even have recognised her. It was very painful seeing her again. Her cheeks were dirty with earth and she had a large grey bruise across her forehead, which was more furrowed than I remembered.

The eighty-year-old Professor Franco Solfi, a disillusioned former communist, discovers a note in the pocket of an old coat from the love of his life, a Russian girl called Irina. He had believed that she was dead, but is now convinced that she is alive and crosses two continents in an attempt to find her.

***

This is such a wonderfully heart-warming novel. An elderly man who discovers that the love of his life is not dead, as he had believed and sets out to find her. I was immediately captivated by the premise.

It contains all the ingredients of a book that made me want to sit down quietly and read through from the first page to the last in one sitting. This was entirely possible as the book is only 170 pages long and it was a joyous way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

As the protagonist of the story crosses borders in his search for Irina, I thoroughly enjoyed meeting the cast of idiosyncratic characters that he met along the way. They were well portrayed, and each brought something to the novel.

It made for fascinating reading as we learn of the disillusion of communism as experienced by the main character. It was disturbing to learn of the control that had been exerted over Franco and Irina and which ultimately resulted in their separation.

Appropriately paced, the novel proceeded in a gentle manner and every word was carefully placed. It may be a short novel but there is plenty in it to hold the readers interest.

However, for me, the main theme of the story centred around the potential of a reunion between them. As ever, there are no spoilers in this review, but suffice to say that I found the concluding chapters to be extremely moving.

If any further books written by Mr Viceconti are translated into English I will definitely be reading them. I highly recommend this book, and I would love to hear your thoughts on it.

ISBN: 978 1916289536 

Publisher: Aspal Prime

About the Author:

Nicola Viceconti is a prize-winning, Italian writer, poet and sociologist, with a passion for history and the culture of Latin America with particular reference to the subject of human rights. Some of his novels were published simultaneously in Italy and Argentina and also distributed in Cuba and Chile. The Chamber of Deputies of the Province of Buenos Aires bestowed upon him the prestigious title of Visitant Ilustre (Honoured Guest) for his work in keeping alive the history of the Argentinian people through his novels portraying significant historical moments in contemporary culture and politics. 

He is the winner of numerous Italian literary prizes for his novels and poetry including for this novel, Come With Me.

Agent Sonya by Ben Macintyre - #BookReview

 

"On 1 May 1924, a Berlin policeman smashed his rubber truncheon into the back of a sixteen-year-old-girl, and helped to forge a revolutionary.

For several hours, thousands of Berliners had been trooping through the city streets in the May Day parade, the annual celebration of the working classes. Their number included many communists, and a large youth delegation...

At the head of the communist youth group marched a slim girl wearing a worker's cap, two weeks short of her seventeenth birthday. This was Ursula Kuczynski's first street demonstration, and her eyes shone with excitement as she waved her placard and belted out the anthem...'Rise up, rise up for the struggle'... As she strode along and sang, Ursula performed a little dance of pure joy."

In a quiet English village in 1942, an elegant housewife emerged from her cottage to go on her usual bike ride. A devoted wife and mother-of-three, the woman known to her neighbours as Mrs Burton seemed to epitomize rural British domesticity.

However, rather than pedalling towards the shops with her ration book, she was racing through the Oxfordshire countryside to gather scientific intelligence from one of the country's most brilliant nuclear physicists. Secrets that she would transmit to Soviet intelligence headquarters via the radio transmitter she was hiding in her outdoor privy.

Far from a British housewife, Mrs Burton - born Ursula Kuczynski, and codenamed 'Sonya' - was a German Jew, a dedicated communist, a colonel in Russia's Red Army, and a highly trained spy. From planning an assassination attempt on Hitler in Switzerland to spying on the Japanese in Manchuria and helping the Soviet Union build the atom bomb, Sonya conducted some of the most dangerous espionage operations of the twentieth century. Her story has never been told - until now.

Agent Sonya is the exhilarating account of one woman's life; a life that encompasses the rise and fall of communism itself, and altered the course of history.

***

This was a very accessible work of non-fiction. I found it very easy to read and I was quickly caught up in Ursula/Sonya's fascinating story. In fact, I eagerly read the whole book in three days as I was so gripped by the story.

The author did a great job in presenting her in her dual role as both spy and mother. From an early point I did wonder how she could perform both satisfactorily. Earlier in the book she says that she would like to have four children who were like Michael, who was her first child. At that specific point I was very puzzled by the incongruity of those two roles. However, in the latter part of the book, it becomes clear that it was her position as a mother that permitted her to hide behind that very domesticity.

She was a remarkable woman who was an effective, successful and high ranking Soviet spy over a period that spanned decades. I did not find her particularly likeable but I was fascinated by her and had to admire her determination to do what she believed was right.

Many people crossed her path over the years and, at times, I felt a little at a loss in remembering who was who. However, there are several photographs included in the book which allowed me to put a face to the names which aided this significantly. I think this is a book that benefits from being read in the physical format as being able to flick backwards and forwards to look at the photos and maps was extremely useful.

Mr Macintyre has clearly done extensive research for this book and he has presented these facts in a chronological and ordered way. It is intelligently written with skill and judgement and the author has ultimately presented readers with an excellent book which I highly recommend.

ISBN: 978 0241408506

Publisher: Penguin

About the Author:

Ben Macintyre is the multimillion-copy bestselling author of books including Agent Zigzag, Operation Mincemeat, A Spy Among Friends, SAS and The Spy and the Traitor. 

He is a columnist and Associate Editor at The Times, and has worked as the newspaper's correspondent in New York, Paris and Washington. He regularly presents BBC series based on his acclaimed books.