Last Night in Montreal. Leaving Berlin and Gorsky

After enjoying Emily St. John Mandel's latest novel "Station Eleven", I went back to her debut. A quite intense story with an interesting theme. Lilia cannot stay in one place for very long. So Eli is not surprised when she leaves him. The author constructs their interwoven stories backwards and forwards through time. The constant switching of characters and timelines sometimes left me dizzy, but the clever writing lets you easily follow the plot. This is quite a short book, but the story is compelling and an easy read.

A well constructed thriller by Joseph Kanon  takes place in January 1949 in post war Berlin. This was the time of the Berlin Airlift when Russia occupied the east of Germany and cut off access by land to other allied powers. We follow Alex Meier, a famous writer, who had fled the Nazis before the war and had resided in America before an engineered return in triumph to his homeland. As in such stories, all is not as it seems. We do get a good picture of this stricken city and the growing power of it's Stalinist regime. The characters are well drawn and the pages rush by, as Alex is welcomed back. There are parties and events laid on for our hero, but the reason for him being there means his stay is interrupted on occasions by some sudden and unexpected violence.

A first rate story of a Russian billionaire (Gorsky) told by Nikola Kimovi, a youngish Serbian migrant running Fynch's bookshop in Chelsky, sorry Chelsea. His association with his rich neighbours has more than a passing nod to a great American novel. Vesna Goldsworth's first dabble with fiction is superbly written, littered as it is with Russian and Balkanisms. "A verst or two" is a Russian measurement. The main characters are very well drawn, Tom and the beautiful Natalia, and her female friend Gery, an ex Bulgarian gold medal winning gymnast. As Nick is drawn into the life of the mega rich, he finds that there are secrets for which money cannot compensate.