By: Tom Rob Smith Publisher: Grand Central Publishing Average Rating: Binding: Hardcover Label: Grand Central Publishing Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 448 Publication Date: April 29, 2008 Release Date: April 29, 2008
Amazon.com: If all that Tom Rob Smith had done was to re-create Stalinist Russia, with all its double-speak hypocrisy, he would have written a worthwhile novel. He did so much more than that in Child 44, a frightening, chilling, almost unbelievable horror story about the very worst that Stalin's henchmen could manage. In this worker's paradise, superior in every way to the decadent West, the citizen's needs are met: health care, food, shelter, security. All one must offer in exchange are work and loyalty to the State. Leo Demidov is a believer, a former war hero who loves his country and wants only to serve it well. He puts contradictions out of his mind and carries on. Until something happens that he cannot ignore. A serial killer of children is on the loose, and the State cannot admit it.
To admit that such a murderer is committing these crimes is itself a crime against the State. Instead of coming to terms with it, the State's official position is that it is merely coincidental that children have been found dead, perhaps from accidents near the railroad tracks, perhaps from a person deemed insane, or, worse still, homosexual. But why does each victim have his or her stomach excised, a string around the ankle, and a mouth full of dirt? Coincidence? Leo, in disgrace and exiled to a country village, doesn't think so. How can he prove it when he is being pursued like a common criminal himself? He and his wife, Raisa, set out to find the killer. The revelations that follow are jaw-dropping and the suspense doesn't let up. This is a debut novel worth reading. --Valerie Ryan
Product Description: A propulsive, relentless page-turner. A terrifying evocation of a paranoid world where no one can be trusted. A surprising, unexpected story of love and family, of hope and resilience. CHILD 44 is a thriller unlike any you have ever read.
"There is no crime."
Stalin's Soviet Union strives to be a paradise for its workers, providing for all of their needs. One of its fundamental pillars is that its citizens live free from the fear of ordinary crime and criminals.
But in this society, millions do live in fear . . . of the State. Death is a whisper away. The mere suspicion of ideological disloyalty-owning a book from the decadent West, the wrong word at the wrong time-sends millions of innocents into the Gulags or to their executions. Defending the system from its citizens is the MGB, the State Security Force. And no MGB officer is more courageous, conscientious, or idealistic than Leo Demidov.
A war hero with a beautiful wife, Leo lives in relative luxury in Moscow, even providing a decent apartment for his parents. His only ambition has been to serve his country. For this greater good, he has arrested and interrogated.
Then the impossible happens. A different kind of criminal-a murderer-is on the loose, killing at will. At the same time, Leo finds himself demoted and denounced by his enemies, his world turned upside down, and every belief he's ever held shattered. The only way to save his life and the lives of his family is to uncover this criminal. But in a society that is officially paradise, it's a crime against the State to suggest that a murderer-much less a serial killer-is in their midst. Exiled from his home, with only his wife, Raisa, remaining at his side, Leo must confront the vast resources and reach of the MBG to find and stop a criminal that the State won't admit even exists.
Tom Rob Smith graduated from Cambridge in 2001 and lives in London. Child 44 is his first novel.
One of the best thrillers I've read in years CHILD 44 is based on the real-life Russian mass-murderer, Andrei Chikatilo, whose capture may have been hindered by the Soviet Union's portrayal of such crimes as being non-existent in the USSR.
The protagonist of the novel is Leo Demidov who is an investigator for the MGB (the heir to the NKVD). It is his job to ferret out the traitors rampant in Soviet society, whether they're guilty or not. He is an extremely idealistic man and is willing to use torture for the overall good. But when he discovers that a veterinarian he has been hunting is guilty of nothing more than treating the dog of an official at the American embassy, he begins to have second thoughts. Then he is asked to investigate his wife.
It takes a while for Smith to get to the child murders. He needs to show what conditions were like under Stalin, he needs to introduce the villain (not the serial killer), and he needs to show the murderer luring children into his spider web. Readers should pay close attention to the beginning as it will be important later in the book. You will need to read it over regardless but at least you'll know where to find the pertinent information.
Smith employs various twists and turns, but I especially liked how he transitioned Demidov from MGB operative to lowly member of the militia who begins to investigate the child murders. It looks like Demidov will never succeed as every clue seems to turn into a dead end. Meanwhile a former colleague (the villain) is tracking him and his wife down. If he is discovered, they both will be summarily shot. There is also a love story of sorts. Demidov's wife, Raisa, never did love him. She married him because he was a MGB operative; she was afraid not to. So, as they search for the killer, they gradually begin to know each other as people. At one point she argues that a truck driver who is taking them to Rostov, a town they think may be the killer's home territory, should be killed to cover their trail. But it's a test. Raisa wants to know if Leo really has changed.
Some may think the ending is a little bit convenient since it leaves room for a sequel, but if there is one, I'll be the first in line to buy it.
WOW! An astonising debut, as chilling as "Silence of the Lambs" or any other literary "horror" story I've ever read. Its about 440 pages and I read it in 2 days since it kept pulling me along. Brilliant, spine-tingling ...can't wait for his next-what a tough act to follow.
1984 meets police procedural I bought Child 44 because I am a big Martin Cruz Smith fan. Others like me--BE WARNED. We love Arkady Renko for his oh-so-Russian, no-good-deed-goes-unpunished black humor and his exhausted kindness. Neither of these qualities exists in this novel. The intellectual moebius strip of acceptable Stalinist thought, the utter devastation of emotional life and the reduction of every interaction to zero sum survivalism is the background, foreground and plot of Child 44. In that sense, this book is a direct descendant of Orwell's 1984. It is the bleakest book I have read since that classic novel--to the extent that I felt damaged by the time I got to the end.
In a sense, I am writing two reviews for Child 44. Smith succeeds to a truly astonishing degree in evoking a world that, as an American, I literally can hardly imagine and found almost unbearable. In this fictional account he has created a picture of the Stalinist USSR more vivid than any non-fictional account could ever be--even The Gulag Archipelago was never such a bludgeoning. This is reality in which the banality of evil has triumphed completely, in which the brutality of the State trumps the horror of a child-killer in every way. If you find utter oppression difficult to read about, beware. It has seldom been depicted better.
Having said that, however, I must agree with previous reviewers who have found fault with the book as a murder mystery. The author spends so much energy creating Soviet Russia that the police procedural is kind of a literary hitchhiker--getting picked up and dropped off erratically until the last few chapters. I also felt that the carefully constructed non-relationship between Leo and his wife, Raisa, was treated very badly in order to get to the end of the book. Child 44 would be a much more cohesive book if it had just been an examination of the State and the marriage, without the sensational murders and the implausible (in several ways) ending.
If I could, I would give Child 44 5 stars for the recreation of the nightmare world of the USSR and 2 stars as a murder mystery.
Riveting Riveting 5+ stars. One of the very best novels of 2008. Outstanding in all respects! After my wife read Child 44 in two nights, she gave it to me as a must read. Well, having spent some time visiting behind the Iron Curtain I wasn't too thrilled about reading a book about Stalinist Russia. My impressions of Russia centered on the color gray. From the people, to the environment, to daily life, everything was a dismal gray. In short depressing. Nonetheless, my wife is right 95% of the time so I picked up Child 44 and started to read. 2 days later I was stunned by how outstanding Mr. Smith's debut novel was. It is simply terrific. Dark, brooding, mysterious, and yet filled with hope. It is Russian to the core, yet throughout it all there is a timeless since of "we will persevere, we will survive!" It is the story of one man's struggle to find his inner peace. Stolen from his biological family at an early age, Leo Demidov is raised by surrogate parents and eventually becomes a part of the post WW2 Stalin era as a member of USSR State Security Force. An ardent defender of the state system, Leo becomes transformed when he realizes that a serial killer of children is on the loose in Russia. He knows that this is not a recognized crime in Utopian Stalin Russia. As he pursues this killer, he himself is denounced as a state troublemaker and is exiled to a backwater town just west of the Ural Mountains. There he continues his quest for the serial killer despite being told to cease and desist by the State Police or face exile to the gulag or worse death. Through all this Leo comes to realize what is truly important in life, saves his strained marriage, and continues to persevere in his hunt for the killer. Child 44 is a wonderful story of the indomitable human spirit. It is both Kafkaesque and Zhivagoesque in its portrayal of Stalinist Russia after WW2. Don't be put off by the subject matter or period-it is simply too good a book not to read. Character development was absolutely superb. Mr. Smith was able to do in 426 pages what some authors couldn't do in 4000 pages. He wove a tight story but developed the characters with ease and fluidity. An amazing feat for his debut novel. Some graphic violence but very germane to the story. No gratuitous sex or language. Must read. Gripping.
A brilliant debut. . . Child 44 is an amazing book. It has great characters and a suspenseful and tense plot. I especially enjoyed the historical setting of this book, Russia under Stalin's regime. Yes, Child 44 is fiction but the author tried to incorporate many factual events into his work, making it a well-rounded and complete novel. This is an impressive debut novel. I will be looking forward to Tom Rob Smith's next book.
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