Brilliant but shocking

The story is a horrifying look (though admittedly sometimes a guess) at what went on in Russia in the 50’s and 60’s, backed up by known facts. It has both pace and human interest to sustain the listener.
The reader is excellent.

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Brummies in the gulag!

An interesting story but the narration left a lot to be desired! Liverpudlian, midland and Irish accents were used for various characters. Some of the dialogue was over simplistic and difficult to believe. Pity.

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Fascinating story

Took a while to get into this book but it told a fascinating story about a period of time I knew nothing about.

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Loved every minute

At this point, Natasha Pulley could publish her shopping list and I'd rave about it, so I think it's fair to say I went in ready to be swept off my feet. It's her first one that has no magic at all to it - as she said herself, radioactivity is weird enough on its own, and while I was a bit apprehensive about that (because I love the magic, not gonna lie), I think she was right. It stands beautifully on its own without any magic at all.

It must be difficult to publish a book about Russia in 2022; even more so having written a book about Russia in 2021 and watching world events unfold as you preparing for the publication of this book. It didn't distract me from the story at all, however. It's set in Russia, of course, and the characters are Russians, but first and foremost it's a story about universal human things that could in a similar form be set anywhere. So if you've been hesitating to pick this up for this reason, please don't. You'd be missing out on a beautiful book.

She brings all her trademark features to play: the broken characters that have their light escaping at the seams, the wonderful worldbuilding, the masterful plot structure, the tender characterisation. Pulley just keeps getting better with every book that she writes, and it's such a shame that every book that she writes seems to receive a little less press than the one before. For me, she's one of the very few living auto-buy authors that I have.

If you loved The Kingdoms by the same author, if you enjoy warm and hopeful stories set in difficult times that never slip into being smarmy or feel-good, if you like stories dealing with adversity little by little one day at a time, still finding things to laugh and weep at; then this book is for you. There's a mystery to solve, but it's not a murder mystery; there's nucelar fission but it's not a science book; there are people falling in love but it's not a romance. It's all of these things, but its brilliance exceeds the sum of its parts. Do read it.

The only thing that did not quite work for me was the narrator - I was not a fan of his voice, and some of the characters were voiced oddly to my ears. But that's just personal preference.

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Thoroughly enjoyed it!

Normally a Pulley fan but struggled with The Kingdoms so I was hopeful that this would suck me in - and it did!

I enjoyed the narrator, the variety of British accents instead of Eastern European ones tickled me.

*Spoilers ahead*

Won't go into much detail, except for the Afterword. I always find it so impressive to get to the end of these books that feel fanciful and fictitious for it to be revealed some things are actual occurrences, it's quite brilliant. It just edges on historical fiction as well as sci-fi in this case.

The only thing that didn't sit right with me was the romance, it became quickly apparent that Shenkov was going to be the love interest and it felt ... boring. As it was clear then that this would follow the theme of her other books. And it really didn't need to have any romance at all for the story to work, instead the story started to bend around the pair.

I felt awful on Anna this long suffering wife who didn't want kids, didn't want to work in this radioactive city and had terminal cancer all because of her husband who she must have known was gay after he got arrested in the first place.

For her to get written out at the end was harsh. Plus Constantine "I'd do anything for my kids" Shenkov not really commenting or making an effort to contact his children after the stink he made about having them was disappointing.

The whole English couple dinner was also just a weirdly placed message, just crammed in at the end.

However, another great read.

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2 people found this helpful

Haunting

I was hooked throughout this, and I finished it a couple of days ago but can’t stop thinking about it!
The narration was excellent, really adding to the story.

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Loved this book - definitely worth a credit!

I listen to & read lots of thrillers, I also love political thrillers & historical novels and somehow this was a little of everything. Refreshingly different from many I listen to, I reckon this would also appeal to those who don’t like thrillers because although it feels like one, it also isn’t”t one. Lots of interesting physiological insight and scarily based in historical truth.

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a wonderful story

The story was so unpredictable. All governments cover things up. The narration was so good, I could visualise all the characters

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Welcome to a version of 1984

It is astonishing (but maybe not surprising) that most of the action in this novel is based on true events in the USSR. You listen in disbelief as character after character tries to tell Valery that black is white, that the 'chocolate factory' (ie the nuclear installations) are perfectly safe, that there's nothing to worry about. Valery, a biologist specialising in the effects of radiation, doesn't buy into the state-mandated lies and doublethink. He gradually uncovers the truth, putting himself and those around him in danger of being summarily shot or otherwise disappeared.

Natasha Pulley is a fantastic writer, taking you straight into the convoluted world of the 1950/60s Soviet state machine. Jot Davies voices a whole range of British regional accents to represent the broad range of people in City 40. It works well to my ears. Highly recommended.

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didn't think I'd enjoy it much but I loved it!

I bought this mainly because I've loved all of Natasha Pulley's other books but I was expecting it to be a bit of a slog because I'm not a fan of prison fiction. It was surprisingly gripping though, with adventure, bone dry humour, and a fragile love story all intertwined with the grim reality of the Soviet era. I don't know how she does it but she can make the bleakest and sometimes dullest of scenarios become completely absorbing. Her depictions of times and places are incredibly vivid without getting bogged down in over-long descriptive passages. And because she is a generous writer all of the characters are given space to come to life and aren't just written off as good or bad or exist only as plot devices. Like her previous novels, the story doesn't flinch from darkness so it's definitely not sentimental but it is romantic and you care deeply about the characters, flawed as they are. I'm looking forward to seeing what she does next

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1 person found this helpful