Helen Dunmore is the author of eleven novels, including The Siege, short listed for the Whitbread Novel of the Year Award and a New York Times Notable Book of the Year; A Spell of Winter, winner of the Orange Prize; and With Your Crooked Heart.
Visit her website at helendunmore.com
--A New York Times Editors' Choice
--Short-listed for The Orwell Prize and The Commonwealth Writers'
Prize (South Asia and Europe)
--Long listed for the Man Booker Prize An emotionally charged
thriller, The Betrayal unfolds breathlessly and with great skill. .
. . You don't want to put it down. . . . Elegant yet
devastating.--The Seattle Times Vividly depicts the difficulty of
living by principle in a tyrannical society, in which paranoia
infects every act, and even ordinary citizens become instruments of
terror.--The New Yorker "Enormously readable, [The Betrayal]
personalizes in intimate detail a harsh and important period in
modern Russian history."--Library Journal "Beautifully crafted,
gripping, moving, enlightening. Sure to be one of the best
historical novels of the year."--Time Out (London) "Magnificent,
brave, tender."--Independent on Sunday Eloquently conveys . . . a
terrible chapter in history. . . . This is a book that should be
read and valued. --Washington Times Somber, [with] stringent
beauty.--Chicago Tribune Historical fiction of the highest order.
--Kirkus Reviews "A masterpiece. An extraordinarily powerful
evocation of a time of unimaginable fear. We defy you to read it
without a pounding heart and a lump in your throat.--Grazia With
precise period detail and astute psychological insight, Dunmore
brings the last months of Stalin's reign to life and reminds us why
some eras shouldn't be forgotten.--Publishers Weekly "A remarkably
feeling, nuanced novel . . . With her seemingly small canvas,
Dunmore has created a universe."--Sunday Herald Enthralling.
Emotionally gripping . . . ordinary people struggling against a
city's beautiful indifference, and clinging on for dear
life.--Daily Telegraph Scrupulous, pitch-perfect. With
heart-pounding force, Dunmore builds up a double narrative of
suspense.--Sunday Times (UK) Dunmore chillingly evokes the
atmosphere of Soviet suspicion, where whispered rumors and petty
grievances metastasize into lies and denunciation. A gripping
read.--Daily Mail Meticulous, clever, eloquent. An absorbing and
thoughtful tale of good people in hard times.--The Guardian
Dunmore's genius lies in her ability to convey the strange Soviet
atmosphere of these very Soviet stories using the most subtle of
clues.--Spectator Storytelling on a grand scale.--The Times (UK)
Riveting . . . Gripping . . . Soviet Russia is a popular setting
for historical novels . . . but The Betrayal takes this genre to
the next level. . . . Because her characters are so expertly drawn,
the dialogue so believable, and the conflicts so intriguing, the
historical setting paints itself. There is no extraneous
description, no heavy-handed narrator forcing the reader to see the
scene. The reader is simply in 1950's Leningrad, struggling with
Anna and Andrei. Dunmore's ability to integrate the reader so
seamlessly into her narrative is masterful. This is a powerful
novel, one that has stuck in my mind since I finished reading
it.--Sarah Sacha Dollacker, BookBrowse
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