Once, when I picked up a book from the local library, the librarian asked to tell her what I thought about the book when I would bring it back. Well, why not write a few lines about all the books I read so everybody could see what I thought about it? I'm often also happy to have friends recommend a certain book or tell me this and that is not really worth reading. I won't comment about the tons of books I have read so far, but about books I read from now on.
| highly recommended | sehr empfohlen | |
| good reading | gutes lesematerial | |
| average | durchschnittlich | |
| not too interesting | nicht allzu interessant | |
| recommended not to read it | empfehlung das buch nicht zu lesen |
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|
|---|---|
| title | Child 44 |
| author | Tom Rob Smith |
| ISBN-10 | 0-446-40239-7 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-446-40239-2 |
| ASIN | |
| rating | |
| date | 2011-Jan-04 |
Leo Stepanovich Demidov, once a hero of war, well trained, is now a successful and dedicated officer of the MGB, the State Security force in Moscow. He does what is expected of him, what he is told to do, and he does not question his orders. Some things just need to be done to keep the system running, to work towards a brighter future. In secret, however, he does have second thoughts about some things going on. And when his superiors demand something very drastic of Leo, his patriotism falters. Expecting to be executed or at least being sent to the Gulag, he gets off very easy, being degraded and sent to some post far away. Punishment or slow torture? Leo does not know. But his real trouble only starts there and soon he finds himself up against the very system he had worked for his whole life.
Tom Rob Smith succeeds in painting a picture with his words. He gives the required background to understand the story, to understand the people, their way of thinking and their actions, albeit at times there are many pages between some at first seemingly unrelated event and the point where the relation becomes obvious. While the whole book is very interesting to read, and the things happening seem to be really possible, I felt the very end, were the mystery is solved, is a bit lukewarm and far fetched, not too logical. But that's only my personal interpretation and despite that, I enjoyed reading this book.
