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Stalin's Ghost by Martin Cruz Smith

Another good novel by Martin Cruz Smith. Read "Gorky Park" and "Nightwing" before. The novel begins with a homicide to which Arkady Renko arrives that is already being investigated by Nikolai Isaakov and Marat Urman. In parallel, Arkady finds himself assigned to a case of people claiming to see Stalin at a railway station. Both of them are connected because the sightings of Stalin are just a publicity stunt for a political party called "Russian Patriots" with Isaakov as their main candidate. The homicide on the other hand is Isaakov trying to wipe out references to his rather shady past in the military while serving in Chechenya. Arkady's father was a General in the Army during Stalin's time. References to his father are not particularly affectionate and probably are the origins of Arkady's disillusionment with the Soviet system. Maybe that is also a reason why drifts towards Eva. Eva was a doctor who served during Chechenya and tended to both

Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

My first novel by Murakami and I am blown to pieces. The portrayal of characters, events and the emotions weaving them together is just too fantastic. The main character is Toru Watanabe who remembers his college days in Tokyo after hearing the song "Norwegian Wood" by Beatles. The entire book revolves around suicide and about how Watanabe struggles to overcome his grief. The beginning of the book: Even so, my memory has grown increasingly dim, and I have already forgotten any number of things. Writing from memory like this, I often feel a pang of dread. What if I've forgotten the most important thing? What if somewhere inside me there is a dark limbo where all the truly important memories are heaped and slowly turning into mud? Be as it may, it's all I have to work with. Clutching these faded, fading, imperfect memories to my breast, I go on writing this book with all the desperate intensity of a starving man sucking on bones. This is the only way I know to ke

The Mission Song - John Le Carre

The book is about Bruno Salvador (Salvo) who has an Irish father and a Congolese mother. Born in Africa and later raised in England,  having mastered most of the African languages he serves as an interpreter. He is married to Penelope, a marriage which collapses as he meets Hannah. He is recruited on a secret mission for Britain as an interpreter in a negotiation of a coup in Congo involving Congolese tribes and an unnamed Syndicate with significant British interests. Following his return from the mission, he tries his best to meet concerned parties to avert the coup but fails on every attempt. Finally, he is captured and is awaiting deportment and his reunion with Hannah who has already been deported. A fantastic novel -  nice to see John Le Carre still going strong. Remembering his father: If there is a divine purpose to your conception, son, he confided to me on his deathbed, resorting to his lovely Irish brogue lest his fellow priests should hear him through the floorboards, i

Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Took a break from reading for a while and got back to it with this classic. A few of the parts need historical references and I'll need to do some reading in history in parallel. Although we hold that it was not for a political function that God created Monseigneur Bienvenu, we could have understood and admired a protest in the name of right and liberty, a fierce opposition, a perilous and just resistance to Napolean when he was all-powerful. But what is pleasing to us towards those who are rising, is less pleasing towards those who are falling. We do not admire the combat when there is no danger; and in any case the combatants of the first hour have alone the right to be the exterminators in the last. He has not been a determined accuser during prosperity, ought to hold his peace in the presence of adversity. He only who denounces the successes at one time had the right to proclaim the justice of the downfall. As for ourselves, when providence intervened and struck the blow, we