Book of the month
The Half Life of Valery K by Natasha Pulley
In 1963 Valery Kolkhanov is plucked from the Siberian gulag and taken to a top-secret Soviet research facility, the Lighthouse. He is a biologist who specialises in the effects of nuclear radiation. He is told that an area around the base has been deliberately irradiated, and his job is to study the long-term effects on the countryside. Valery owes his rescue to his former mentor, Dr Resovskaya, who in the past had to reassure Valery’s ethical qualms about the type of research they were involved in.
Valery’s relief at being freed from the gulag turns to concern about the nature of his new project. Why are contamination levels much higher than the official figures show? Why is the local KGB officer, Shenkov, being kind to him? Is it a KGB trick? The socially awkward Valery — he doesn’t look people in the eye and talks when he shouldn’t — keeps getting in trouble with Shenkov and Resovskaya. The danger intensifies when he stumbles across a body in a contaminated lake. He wants to understand what is happening, but in Soviet Russia “everyone knew one thing to be true, but everyone was obliged to keep insisting it wasn’t”.
This clever, gripping novel is based on the true story of a nuclear research facility at Chelyabinsk, where an accident in 1957 caused acute radiation sickness in the area. Natasha Pulley’s wry, intelligent style works well to depict the Soviet world of lies and secrets, and Valery’s naive goodness is a mirror to the murky world he inhabits.
Bloomsbury, 384pp; £16.99
Dark Earth by Rebecca Stott
Isla and Blue are sisters living on an island in the Thames with their father, a blacksmith. They are outcasts and their father is accused of using dark magic to fashion his swords. He has secretly taught Isla the skills to be a blacksmith, despite the Saxon community’s strict prohibition on women working with metal. When their father dies suddenly, the sisters are left at the mercy of King Osric and his sinister son Vort. Dangerous accusations of magic and witchcraft begin to swirl, the two girls escape to the “Ghost City”, the ruins of once glorious Londinium — it’s AD500 and the Romans have been gone for almost a century.
The Ghost City is inhabited by a motley group of outcasts and runaways. The sisters find shelter and friendship, but Vort hates the sisters and his desire to hunt them down brings peril to everyone. Dark Earth is a richly imagined, convincing evocation of a lost Britain.
4th Estate, 352pp; £16.99
The Bewitching by Jill Dawson
Alice Samuel is an old, occasionally cantankerous woman who looks uncomfortably witchlike. A new squire, Robert Throckmorton, has come to reside in her Fenland village with his brood of children, including the oddball Johanne and Jane, who suffers from fits. When Alice calls on the family Jane is overcome, and the old woman is soon accused of witchcraft. This is 16th-century England, and such an accusation is taken all too seriously.
The story is partly told from Alice’s perspective and her bewilderment and anger are palpable. The accusations are impossible to refute and the proofs cited against her are bizarre. The other narrator is Martha, a servant who has been with the Throckmorton family since her adolescent years. Martha’s determination to think well of the family is tested by the slow revelation of dark secrets: there is tension in the parents’ marriage and allegations of sexual abuse. More of the Throckmorton children begin to have fits, and the accusations against Alice mount.
Novels about witch-hunts are not rare beasts, but The Bewitching, which is based on the true story of the witches of Warboys, is a particularly fine example. Tension builds, events spiral out of control and it builds to a devastating finale.
Sceptre, 320pp; £20
The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesley by Sean Lusk
In 1754 Abel Cloudesley’s beloved wife dies giving birth to their son, Zachary. He turns out to be a preternaturally gifted child who loves being in his father’s clockwork workshop. Abel and his assistant Tom make elaborate clockwork machines that look like peacocks or young women. Zachary has an accident and when he recovers his gifts are even more pronounced. He can see into the future and when he touches people he can see into their hearts. Tom describes him as “a clock that tells of time to come and of time past and missed, yet is driven by blood and a beating heart”. Abel is blackmailed into going to Constantinople to work as a spy, and when he disappears Zachary must also travel to the Ottoman capital to find his father. This inventive, fantastical novel, which blends magical realism with historical fiction, is a memorable debut.
Doubleday, 368pp; £14.99
The Trial of Lotta Rae by Siobhan MacGowan
A young working-class woman is raped by a gentleman after a Halloween party. Lotta Rae’s furious parents decide that she must press charges against him, but this is 1906 and a conviction is unlikely. Her barrister, the kindly William Linden, helps Lotta believe that she can win, but as details of her life are leaked to the defence team she begins to understand that justice is a frail concept. After the trial reaches its grim conclusion Lotta seeks revenge, and as her plan advances William’s life begins to unravel. The personal and political collide as Lotta and Raff, William’s son, become caught up in the suffragette movement. Lotta’s spirited response to her misfortunes keeps the reader hooked to the end.
Welbeck, 400pp; £12.99
