Snowdrops
A.D. Miller, 2010
Knopf Doubleday
272 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780307739476
Summary
Finalist, 2011 Man Booker Prize
An intense psychological drama that echoes sophisticated entertainments like Gorky Park and The Talented Mr. Ripley. Nick Platt is a British lawyer working in Moscow in the early 2000s—a place where the cascade of oil money, the tightening grip of the government, the jostling of the oligarchs, and the loosening of Soviet social mores have led to a culture where corruption, decadence, violence, and betrayal define everyday life. Nick doesn’t ask too many questions about the shady deals he works on—he’s too busy enjoying the exotic, surreally sinful nightlife Moscow has to offer.
One day in the subway, he rescues two willowy sisters, Masha and Katya, from a would-be purse snatcher. Soon Nick, the seductive Masha, and long-limbed Katya are cruising the seamy glamour spots of the city. Nick begins to feel something for Masha that he is pleased to think is love. Then the sisters ask Nick to help their aged aunt, Tatiana, find a new apartment.
Of course, nothing is as it seems—including this extraordinary debut novel. The twists in the story take it far beyond its noirish frame—the sordid and vivid portrayal of Moscow serves as a backdrop for a book that examines the irresistible allure of sin, featuring characters whose hearts are as cold as the Russian winter. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1974
• Where—London, England, UK
• Education—Cambridge University; Princeton University
• Currently—lives in London, England
A.D. Miller studied literature at Cambridge and Princeton, where he began his journalistic career writing travel pieces about America. Returning to London, he worked as a television producer before joining The Economist to write about British politics and culture. In 2004 he became The Economist's correspondent in Moscow, travelling widely across Russia and the former Soviet Union. He is currently the magazine's Britain editor; he lives in London with his wife Emma, daughter Milly and son Jacob. (From .)
Book Reviews
Compelling... Makes you see and feel the glitz, squalor, and violence of Moscow.
Boston Globe
[An] assured fiction debut.... [Miller] memorably captures Moscow's atmosphere during the glitzy, anything-goes era that succeeded Soviet Communism.
Seattle Times
Elegant and compact.... A superlative portrait of a country in which everything has its price.
Financial Times (UK)
[A]n electrifying tour ...[that] assaults all your senses with its power and poetry, and leaves you stunned and addicted.
Independent (UK)
Like Graham Greene on steroids... Tightly written.... Miller’s complex, gripping debut novel is undoubtedly the real thing.
Daily Mail (UK)
A deeply atmospheric, slow-burning examination of the effects of modern Russia on the soul of foreign visitors...beautifully drawn and mirrored in several ingenious subplots.... Miller is absolutely wonderful at evoking the seediness and cynicism of Moscow
Independent on Sunday (UK)
Strips away the layers of life in the Russian capital with subtle, pitiless grace....Paced almost ideally, with an atmosphere that scintillates with beguiling menace.
Literary Review (UK)
Things may not be what they appear, but they turn out to be exactly what readers will predict in this saggy debut about shady business deals in go-go capitalist Russia. Nick Platt, a lawyer who has traded his dull British life for pushing paper in Moscow, soon takes up with a leggy young Russian about whom he knows nothing and, at her behest, helps a babushka trade her fabulous apartment for a half-built place in the country. The deal seems like a scam, and, of course, it is, but Nick is blinded by lust and nearly always a step behind the reader. He blithely gets involved in a multimillion-dollar loan for an oil pipeline brokered by a dodgy fellow known only as "the Cossack," even after a key player goes missing. Most readers will not be so easily duped, and Nick's oft-repeated I-should-have seen-it-comings undercut any suspense that might remain, though there are interesting bits to be found in the travelogue-style writing about the new Russia.
Publishers Weekly
A sense of foreboding pervades this quietly intense novel, set in a freewheeling Russia of the early 21st century. British narrator Nick Platt describes two intersecting experiences of corruption and duplicity. One is his naive involvement in a scheme to bankrupt an innocent babushka. Distracted by his love affair with one of the con artists, Nick does not allow himself to realize that he is being used for his lawyerly skills. The other con occurs when the bank he represents is lured into releasing $500 million for a seemingly legitimate oil project. It is obvious that bad things are going to happen on both fronts, and the story becomes strangely gripping as the final details are revealed. Verdict: Martin Cruz Smith's Three Stations meets J. Robert Lennon's enigmatic but similarly paced Castle in this new work. A lesson in the art of self-delusion and the dog-eat-dog society of post-Soviet Russia, it's sure to be an instant success. Essential for committed readers of fiction and a discussion feast for book clubs. —Henry Bankhead, Los Gatos P.L., CA
Library Journal
(Starred review.) Written as a man’s confession to the woman he’s going to marry, Miller’s masterful debut chronicles British lawyer Nicholas Platt’s dubious dealings in Moscow at the turn of the twenty-first century.... A mesmerizing tale of a man seduced by a culture he fancies himself above, Miller’s novel is both a nuanced character study and a fascinating look at the complexities of Russian society. —Kristine Huntley
Booklist
The unbridled mayhem of the 1990s has died down a bit, but Western companies are still pouring money into the hands of newly minted Russian conglomerates, and British lawyer Nicholas Platt is writing the contracts.... Miller, formerly a Moscow correspondent for Economist, vividly evokes the no-holds-barred atmosphere of the city in its early-capitalist stage, but it's seedy rather than alluring, and as Nicholas deliberately ignores glaring signs that he's being conned, readers may well find him stupid rather than tragically deluded.... Good local color, but nothing much to care about here.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Is Nick Platt, the narrator of Snowdrops, a good man who turns bad, a bad man to start with, or neither?
2. Towards the end of the book, Nick says that Masha “had a better excuse.” Do you think Snowdrops is at heart a story about corrupt Russians or corruptible westerners?
3. How far should Nick’s behaviour be explained by his circumstances and opportunities in Moscow, and how far by his own temperament and psychology?
4. At what point did Nick begin to question his own motives and sense of ethics?
5. When Nick visits Tatiana Vladimirovna’s apartment for the first time, he says that he “liked her immediately, and…liked her right ‘til the end.” Is that true? If so, why doesn’t it affect how he behaves?
6. Do Nick’s feelings for his fiancée change as he is recounting his tale? How does the relationship implied in the framing device interact with or reinforce his Moscow story?
7. There are several plots in Snowdrops: the main drama involving Tatiana Vladimirovna; the one featuring the Cossack and the floating oil terminal; and the story of Nick’s neighbour, Oleg Nikolaevich, and his missing friend. How do these plots relate to each other?
8. At the beginning of the story, Nick tries to be kind to Oleg Nikolaevich. By the end of it, he is less kind and spends much less time with him. Who suffers most as a result?
9. “I liked the Cossack,” Nick says after their first meeting: “Something about him was endearing...It might be better to say I envied him.” What does he mean by that?
10. At the heart of the novel is Nick’s trip to the dacha in the forest with Masha and Katya: “my happiest time,” he says; “the time I would always go back to if I could”. What does Nick learn at the dacha—about the women and about himself?
11. How much, if anything, of what Masha and Katya tell Nick about themselves do you think is true?
12. The exact years that Nick lives in Moscow aren’t specified in the book. But, thinking about the attitudes of the lawyers and bankers in the story, do you think Snowdrops is amongst other things a pre-credit crunch tale?
13. At the end of Snowdrops, Nick says that when he thinks about what happened to him during his last winter in Moscow, “there is guilt”. But then he qualifies that by saying “there is some guilt”. Is Nick really sorry for what he did during his last winter in Moscow? Does he understand how serious it was?
14. At one point Nick describes the winter as an “annual oblivion…like temporary amnesia for a bad conscience”. What role do snow and the weather play in Snowdrops?
15. A snowdrop, as Nick’s friend Steve explains to him, is a body that lies buried or hidden in the snow, emerging only in the thaw. What does the image of the snowdrop symbolise in Snowdrops?
(Questions issued by publisher.)