I have to confess that I'm biased with this book as I love Soviet history. So to have a book about the party arresting one of its own during the terror was one I couldn't resist.

This was pretty up there for me and is the type of book that you don't want to talk too much about so you don't ruin it for anyone else with your own impressions (but as it's the nature of bookcrossing here are a limited few of mine).

While it is fiction it corresponds so closely from what I know of the terror and the tactics used in reality. Rubashov's series of matches/interrogations with Gletkin are fascinating as you see him slowly moving towards his inevitable fate. The elements of his relationships with the other prisoners via the wall tapping are equally compelling.

Brilliantly written, beautifully developed characters and a simple but engrossing narrative that creates a microcosm of the whole terror - simply wonderful.

RELEASE NOTES:

Left outside the shop window