Heads Or Tails... Book reviews by Steve Cooke
As a magazine publisher—what I call the business end of the creative process—my thirst for diverse thought requires hav- ing a hard cover work of fiction next to my office chair at all times. Over the course of a year, my book of the month club is structured to prevent the insanity that would engulf me
London, August 22, 1940 (TASS) – London radio has today announced: “In a Mexico City hospital, Leon Trotsky died as a result of a fractured skull sustained in an attack perpetrated the previous day by a person in his innermost circle.” This translated version of The Man Who Loved Dogs by
Cuban author Leonardo Padura, brings to life one of the most fascinating and complex political narratives of the past century: the assassination of Leon Trotsky by Ramón Mercader. It chron- icles the parallel lives of Russian Revolutionary, Leon Trotsky; KGB trained Spanish assassin, Ramon Mercader; and Ivan Cárdenas, an unfulfilled Cuban writer. The story is seen through the eyes
of Cárdenas, who in his youth was considered a prodigy in Cuban liter- ary circles,until he penned a story that communist leaders viewed as counterrevolutionary. Years later we find him a defeated man with no hope of redemption, eking out a liv-
ing as a proofreader for a veterinary magazine in Havana. One afternoon at the beach in 1976, he meets a mysterious
foreigner walking his two Russian Wolfhounds. On subsequent visits to the beach, the pair grow closer, and Cárdenas begins to understand that his new friend is sharing a terrible secret. The storyline takes you through the Soviet era, the Spanish Civil War where Ramon Mercador’s recruitment as an assassin began, the politics among Trotsky, Lenin and Stalin, and events in Mexico City as the plot to dispatch Trotsky unfolds. After Trotsky loses power to Stalin, he is exiled from Russia, finally finding refuge at the residence of artists Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera in Mexico.
Remarkably, Ivan Cárdenas relates all of this history, having
lived his life during the Castro regime with a dying wife and as a starving writer.
The Man Who Loved Dogs By Leonardo Padura Translated by Anna Kushner 576 pages. 2014 by FSG/Macmillan.
Keeping with our “theme” of war, injustice and death in the European theatre, Finding Zasha by Randi Barrow begins in 1941, on the eve of Germany’s siege of Leningrad, as Hitler’s troops continue their march through Russia. After a harrowing escape across a frozen lake, 12-year-old Ivan’s mother thinks he’ll be safe from the war in the countryside. Unfortunately, his new town is occupied by Nazi forces immediately following his
68 THE NEW BARKER
were it not for the immersion in stories that remove life’s reali- ties while stimulating imagination...if only for stolen moments. Corny as hell, but it works for me. Here are three novels read so far this year that will, in varying degrees, help you under- stand how really troubled I am, or maybe not.
arrival. Determined to do his part for Russia, he joins a group of parti- sans—ordinary citizens secretly fighting the Germans. When the town’s Nazi commander orders Ivan to entertain soldiers with his con- certina at headquarters, he meets Zasha and Thor, Major Recht’s two adorable German Shepherd puppies, who are being trained to hunt Russians. Ivan secretly develops a plot to steal them, which could lead
to deadly consequences as Recht is a dangerously ruthless man who stops at nothing to get what he wants. A Scholastic Press book, Finding Zasha follows a historically correct timeline, while weaving an exciting tale around hardship, dogs and salvation.
Finding Zasha By Randi Barrow Published 2013 by Scholastic Press.
In Damien Lewis’s The Dog Who Could Fly— “it’s the winter of 1939 in the no-man’s-land between France and Germany, when two lonely survivors met and began an extraordinary journey that would turn them into lifelong friends. One was an orphaned puppy, abandoned by his owners as they fled Nazi forces. The other, a Czech air- man bound for the Royal Air Force and the country, Britain, he would come to call home. Robert Bozdech stumbled across the tiny German Shepherd after being shot down on a daring mission over enemy lines. Unwilling to desert his charge,
Robert hid Ant inside his flight jacket as he escaped. He could- n’t have known it then, but that moment marked the start of an enduring partnership—one that would see them sent to England, then take to the skies over battle-torn Europe in one of WWll’s most inspirational stories of courage.” Adapted from an incredible true story when author
Damien Lewis discovered an original manuscript written by Bozdech himself – the complete account of his life with Ant.
The Dog Who Could Fly. By Damien Lewis Published June 2014 by Altria Books Simon & Schuster.
www.TheNewBarker.com
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