Even though this book is very short, more of a novella than a novel, I am not sure I caught all the nuance within. One thing it did was make we want to know the author more and better, which is a victory in itself. The scene is set on the Trans-Siberian Express, the train running all the way from Moscow to Vladivostock. One of my childhood travel dreams, of which I had many, was to ride the Trans-Siberian Express someday. Even after watching the action adventure movie of the same name, I held on to this as a life travel goal--dashed by Putin at least for the moment, but kept alive by my one train travel experience in Russia of going in the opposite direction, from Moscow to St. Petersburg. This book is kind of a blend of both those backgrounds, part Byronesque romanticism and part nail biting tension.
Aliocha is a conscripted soldier, heading off to begin his service somewhere in the far east of Russia, but having already experienced some of the brutality that awaits him there, he’s decided that he’s going to try to escape. That proves to be a tricky endeavor, but on one foiled attempt at a stopover, he runs into Hélène, a French woman on the first leg of her long journey home, and after an interesting night spent smoking quietly together makes a silent plea for help and she, also silently, agrees.
It’s an impulsive decision, a kind gesture to help out a stranger in need, but then again the reader, who has only glimpsed Putin's Russia, where even Navalny--or maybe especially Navalny--has to die, you are left to wonder whether it will turn out to be the wisest of choices.
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