Author: Robert Littell
Publication Date: 2020
Publisher: Overlook Press, an Imprint of Abrams
ISBN: 978-1-4197-4832-5
Source of Book: Overlook Press via NetGalley
Blurb:
After the sudden death of his nuclear physicist father and the arrest of his mother during the Stalinist purge of Jewish doctors, young Leon Rozental—intellectually precocious and possessing a disarming candor—is hiding from the NKVD in the secret rooms of the House on the Embankment, a large building in Moscow where many Soviet officials and apparatchiks live and work. One day after following a passageway, Leon meets Koba, an old man whose apartment is protected by several guards. Koba is a high-ranking Soviet officer with troubling insight into the thoughts and machinations of Comrade Stalin.
Through encounters between a naive boy and a paranoid tyrant, Robert Littell creates in Comrade Koba a nuanced portrayal of the Soviet dictator, showing his human side and his simultaneous total disregard for and ignorance of the suffering he inflicted on the Russian people. The charm and spontaneity of young Leon make him an irresistible character—and not unlike Holden Caulfield, whom he admits to identifying with—caught in the spider’s web of the story woven by this enigmatic old man.
(Source of Blurb: https://www.amazon.com/Comrade-Koba-Novel-Robert-Littell/dp/1419748327 )
Review:
Comrade Koba is an unusual book. It describes a series of conversations with a precocious young orphaned boy with the WWII Soviet dictator, Stalin. The boy does not know he is conversing with Stalin, but thinks he is someone very close to Stalin who helps him run the country. The point of view is the boy with a few chapters sprinkled in from the point of view of a close friend of the boy.
This is a very innovative book structure, but was a little difficult for me to accept. I found the boy a little too precocious for his own good. Nevertheless, I found myself drawn into the book and did enjoy it a great deal. If you are interested in the history of the Stalin era, you will most likely enjoy this book. For me, it was an interesting follow-up to a reading of the outstanding A Gentleman in Moscow. It evokes that same era and atmosphere. The author is quite skilled at drawing a believable portrait of the earthy Stalin, the man from peasant stock who never quite gets the magnitude of the evil he unleashed and has no comprehension of the monster that he is. The “kid” as he is known in the book is a likeable character, and the artifice that he does not know that he is speaking to the actual Stalin is entertaining and provides a great deal of suspense for the reader wondering just what happens to “the kid” and his circle of family and friends.
The book seemed quite short to me, perhaps a tribute to the tight writing and storytelling of the author. The book moves quickly and draws the reader into the story in a clever way.
I have not read any of Robert Littell’s previous work. Comrade Koba shows that he knows his way around the Soviet Union, and I will try to read some of the author’s previous work.
Thank you to Overlook Press and NetGalley for providing me with an advance copy of Comrade Koba in exchange for an honest review. I enjoyed reading it.
Rating: 4.0/5.0
Link to Author’s Website: https://www.simonandschuster.com/authors/Robert-Littell/48301656
Purchase Link: https://www.amazon.com/Robert-Littell/e/B000APIOAS%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share
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