Snowdrops (Miller) - Book Reviews

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