Meek, please find another editor - Rated 
This is a very uneven book. There are islands of absolutely stunning, jaw-droppingly good writing in seas of stultifying boredom. I had trouble resisting the urge of not finishing it. Meek can have a wonderful way with words, and some of the scenes and characters were really memorable; I suspect this could have been a masterpiece if a better editor had worked on it.
A difficult read. - Rated
I read a lot of books of varying genres and in different languages. I was given this novel as a Christmas gift and the fact that I have only just finished it at the start of May should give some indication of how gripping it isn't. I have been left less than impressed with Meek's attempt at a Russian novel and am now left wondering why I bothered to pursue it to the end. Encouraged by reviewers urging readers to stick with it I succeeded in ploughing through all 400 pages only to be left with a disappointing and unremarkable ending. I was unable to sympathise with any of the characters and because I was unable to endure more than 20 pages at a time found myself continually having to go back to see to whom each name referred. There are simply too many characters and too many diversions throughout the novel that it becomes overly complicated and quite tedious. Too often I found myself looking to see how many pages there were to go which is not the sign of a successful novel. It does take until page 100 before anything really happens and as such I like other reviewers feel that the novel could be salvaged with some much needed editing. Some of the ideas are interesting and the plot has potential if only it had not been so watered down and the made so terribly confusing. I got little out of this read and was left feeling I deserved a medal for endurance.
hard to care about them.... - Rated 
Some interesting sides to this story and much to learn from a historical perspective but, quite frankly, I could muster little interest in the characters.
Stick with this.................... - Rated 
I was not going to review this book at all. It has been on the Richard and Judy list,sold a lot of copies and therfore i thought, would have settled into well deserved comfortable respectability.I have just read the book and checked out the amazon reviews and was motivated to write it purely by the huge disparity of opinions.
This is , in my opinion by the end a quite superb novel.Had I given up at page 80 or so i would have described it as confusing if well written and somewhat unbelievable in its cast of characters.
I would appeal to prospective readers to stick with the book. Once it is realised that the events portrayed are very well documented in historical fact insofar as the most fantastical elements are concerned, then any problems with the book become our own in terms of incredulity rather than the authors.
The eternal questions of "what is valid love?" and "love for a person versus love for an ideal" are epically addressed in this novel and the relevance to certain themes to our current societies trauma over Islamic terrorism aimed at a "greater good" cannot be ignored.
I have not described the plot or characters (which are exquisitely drawn) because this would be shockingly unfair on any purchaser, but please check out this book.To be put off by those who have maybe not stuck with it would do yourself a great disservice.
United in the belief that love exists and matters - Rated 
This book produced a wider than usual range of opinion in my Reading Group.
In 1919, after the revolution, a small group of the Czechoslovak Legion are stranded, controlling a Siberian town, and awaiting the eastward march of the newly victorious Reds. The town itself is home to a community of religious aesthetes united in having volunteered themselves for castration as a means of driving out evil. Wandering out of the woods comes a mysterious figure who claims to have escaped from an Arctic prison camp far to the North pursued by a cannibal. Added to the characters is strong-minded and lonely Anna who lives on the outskirts of the town with her young son.
In an interview, Meek has argued that the four central characters in the book are united by the belief that love exists and matters. The two male characters believe that love may go beyond that of one individual to another - of man to woman, mother to son, friend to friend - and extend to God's love, the People's love, a country's love. The attractions of such views, and the wickedness and cruelty that attach to some of their extremes, are explored in the relationships between the various protagonists.
One person in our group, whose opinions I usually find myself in agreement with, strongly disliked the book. He found it `manipulative' in that it appeared to select a number of topics not the subjects of many novels - the Czech Legion, communities of castrates, cannibals - and then construct a far-fetched tale in which to combine them. He also detected a misogynistic stance towards the character of Anna.
The book worked for me however - brilliant (quite literally) Siberian landscapes, characters dislocated through war and struggling for love and a sense of home, a period of history I only dimly understand, the impossibility of collective decision making in revolutionary times, the sacrifices made in the name of purification - and the ghastly notion of somebody planning a long journey through the bleakest of Arctic country deliberately fattening up his intended travelling companion beforehand!
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