BOOK OF THE MONTH
Red Sky at Noon
by Simon Sebag Montefiore
“Not one step back!” So ordered Joseph Stalin in 1942 as the Germans advanced across the Russian steppe. For Benya Golden, a political prisoner drafted into a troop of condemned men sent to fight the invading army, stepping back means the gulag. Forward, into the path of the German war machine, could mean redemption and home.
Red Sky at Noon is the third of Simon Sebag Montefiore’s Moscow Trilogy. Some of the characters, including Golden, appear in other novels, but it can be read as a stand-alone. Golden is given rudimentary training as a cavalryman, and a faithful horse, Silver Socks. With his comrades, a rag-tag band of gangsters, Cossacks and politicos, he is sent on a mission into enemy territory. They meet some of the 250,000 Italians ordered to Russia by Mussolini. There are power-drunk Nazis and Soviet traitors, including a particularly memorable villain. Huge numbers of Russians have abandoned the Soviet Union and fight for the invaders.
There are atrocities and horrors on all sides, and in the middle is Benya, a good man fighting to keep his humanity. He meets a brave Italian nurse, Fabiana, and the two fall in love amid the carnage. A subplot follows a similarly ill-starred affair between Stalin’s daughter, Svetlana Stalina, and a middle-aged Jewish writer; it is based, a little too loosely, on real events.
Red Sky at Noon is written with brio and deep knowledge of its fascinating subject matter. In his acknowledgments, Montefiore namechecks Isaac Babel and Mikhail Sholokhov, both of whom wrote of fighting by the River Don. Of course, this cannot compete with those masters, but it is a deeply satisfying page-turner.
Century, 416pp, £16.99
The Outcasts of Time by Ian Mortimer
It is 1348, and the Black Death is laying waste to Devon. William, a devout mason, and his brother John find a baby screaming at the side of his dead mother. The attempt to save the baby unleashes horrific consequences. So far, The Outcasts of Time, by the respected historian Ian Mortimer, is on familiar, bleak territory. However, William, in agonies from his decision to help the baby, hears divine voices that tell him that he has six days left to live. Each of these days will be spent 99 years ahead of the last one. The next morning the brothers wake up in 1447. The next day is 1546, and so on. They must, according to the voices, find a way to earn their salvation in their six days as outcasts.
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The conceit made me nervous — as a rule, the less time-travel in historical fiction, the better. However, Mortimer knows his stuff; he is the author of a series of nonfiction bestsellers, including The Time Traveller’s Guide to Medieval England. William and John watch history change their corner of England; we also see how some things never change. The details, such as the evolution of surnames and forms of address, are fascinating. Beautifully written and superbly executed.
Simon & Schuster, 400pp, £12.99
Vindolanda by Adrian Goldsworthy
Adrian Goldsworthy is another historian turned novelist. Vindolanda is set on the edge of the Roman world, northern Britain in AD98. The hero is Flavius Ferox, a noble Briton turned centurion. The local tribal raids are becoming bolder and Ferox attempts to convince his complacent Roman overlords that serious trouble is coming. There are dark rumours of druidic rituals.
Ferox is a likeable character with conflicted loyalties. As he grows closer to the Roman wife of one of his superiors, he has to confront what it means to be loyal to the empire. Goldworthy has a great knowledge of the Roman army, but that expertise sometimes makes the novel drag. An authentic, enjoyable read.
Head of Zeus, 416pp, £7.99
The Night Brother by Rosie Garland
The Night Brother is a rich and ambitious tale set in late-Victorian Manchester. Edie is a young girl with boyish looks. She wakes uneasily each morning, haunted by dreams. Her mother is sharp and loveless; her brother, Gnome, is a creature of the night, a wayward scamp who loves the noise and murk of the industrial city. However, Edie’s mother insists that Gnome is a dream.
As Gnome and Edie grow — one active at night and the other by day — it becomes obvious that they are linked in peculiar ways. Edie must battle her brother to find her path to womanhood. She grows ever bolder, becoming a suffragette. Garland’s prose is a delight; playful and exuberant. There are shades of Angela Carter in the mad world she creates, but this exploration of gender implies that to be male is to be inevitably sexually aggressive. Full marks for style; fewer for substance.
Borough Press, 384pp, £16.99
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Prague Nights by Benjamin Black
Benjamin Black is the crime-writing pen name of John Banville. In Prague Nights Black transports us to Prague in 1599, and the mercurial world of an imperial court obsessed with sex and magic. Christian Stern, a young doctor with more ambition than means, finds the body of a young woman lying in the snow. She is a mistress of Rudolf II. The Habsburg emperor employs Stern to find the murderer. This is his entry into the macabre court of Rudolf, which is peopled with alchemists, artists and courtesans. Black conjures up their bizarre world; Prague’s sinister, magical atmosphere is irresistible.
The plot is less successful. Stern, our narrator, does little investigating. Instead he meanders through Prague, sleeping with women and berating himself for not doing more. He becomes entangled with an ageing, ruthless seductress, another of the emperor’s women. Did she have something to do with her rival’s death? It’s not entirely clear that Black cares.
Viking, 336pp, £12.99
