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One Night in Winter

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One Night in Winter

By: Simon Sebag Montefiore
Narrated by: Simon Slater
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About this listen

If your children were forced to testify against you, what terrible secrets would they reveal? Moscow 1945. As Stalin and his courtiers celebrate victory over Hitler, shots ring out. On a nearby bridge, a teenage boy and girl lie dead. But this is no ordinary tragedy and these are no ordinary teenagers, but the children of Russia’s most important leaders who attend the most exclusive school in Moscow. Is it murder? A suicide pact? Or a conspiracy against the state?

Directed by Stalin himself, an investigation begins as children are arrested and forced to testify against their friends - and their parents. This terrifying witch-hunt soon unveils illicit love affairs and family secrets in a hidden world where the smallest mistakes will be punished with death.

©2013 Simon Montefiore (P)2013 Random House AudioGo Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Fiction Scary Stalin

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Until I read this book I didn't realise how much would enjoy his genre of book. I'm already a huge fan of his wife Santa. I would not be a huge fan of biographies but because this was truth in the form of a novel. I loved it

Extremely good

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Weather its history or fiction i've always found anything to do with the Soviet Union/Russia to be scary and depressing.And i'm thankful that i wasnt born in any era of that Country. I've read the 3 books in this series and though i enjoyed them i won't be listening to them again as i found all 3 novel's sad,depressing and without hope.

Disturbing

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What did you like most about One Night in Winter?

The main theme, the arrest of a group of teenagers, friends of the victim of two murders during the victory parade in Moscow in 1945, encapsulates the cruelty and topsy turvy world of the Stalin regime. The crudity of the interrogators and of the top apparatchiks is vividly cnveyed. Tension is built up in a series of episodes with clues to suggest that each one will potentially incriminate the actors. We know this but don't quite see how. So we have to go on listening to find out how it will be used and distorted by the authorities. Stalin is a sinister backround presence, a mixture of bonhomie and menace.The element of irony comes from the striving by the parents of the teenagers to be "good bolsheviks", which means suppressing normal human feelings. Scenes of almost unbearable brutality are juxtaposed with scenes of what seem to be normal enjoyment. The writing could be more economical : there are to many adjectives and too many brutal incidents. The love scenes are OK but a bit overdone.

What other book might you compare One Night in Winter to, and why?

Hans Fallada's Alone in Berlin, also describes life under a brutal totalitarian regime, but because the writing is more economical, the effect is stronger

Which scene did you most enjoy?

The early scene where the teenagers in the Pushkin club meet to re-enact the duel between Onegin and Lensky in Eugene Onegin., which perfectly captures teenage innocence and enthusiasm, and hero worship of the cub leader,but at the same time one senses that it will all go horribly wrong

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Not really. I should have wanted to cry and perhaps I nearly did when very young children were brought into the Lubianka, missing their Mums and bedtime toys, but generally nausea is a more accurate description of my emotional reaction. Possibly that was intended.

Any additional comments?

It was very well read,especially, given that the narrator is male, when women or girls were often speaking. Local accents were convincing.

totalitarian nightmare

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Loved the story though it was in history section so thought it was non-fiction. It is a novel but brilliant!

Good fiction

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Powerful stuff: how terrible it must have been under Stalin's regime. Russian novels are renowned for their relentless gloom; this novel about Russia seeks to outdo even them. With our victims locked in the depths of prison, I just had to give up, I couldn't take any more.

Harrowing

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Sebag Montefiori's books are always excellent. Unfortunately this is read by someone who makes significant and distracting heavy breathing between phrases which made it imposdible to enjoy. Sadly i could not finish it, a first.

Ghastly heavy breathing by narrator

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The story is captivating but Slater's very odd breathing patterns and strange mouth sounds, along with the obvious editing performed to hide this, rendered this audio book almost unlistenable. I would never buy another audio book narrated by him again. Very annoying in the extreme.

Reader's voice almost unbearable

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Story and reading both good, but editing inexplicably bad: Joins that should have been unnoticeable often marked by fluctuations in background sound level; uneven pauses in narration; and worst, an unsettling absence of pauses between chapters.

Good story and performance, terrible editing

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Any additional comments?

- a great beach read/listen, immerses you in the world and the period. The narrator was very good at defining the different characters.

Very absorbing thriller

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loved this book along with the other two of the Moscow trilogy. Found it harrowing at times and very uplifting at others but was compelled to finish all three books as aware many people perished at the hands of this evil dictatorship and nominee should be ignorant of how things were at this time in the history of Russia.

Brilliant storytelling

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