Unforgiving Years

Starred review from September 3, 2007
Born in Brussels of Russian revolutionary exiles, Serge (1890–1947) has long had a reputation as polemicist and journalist, but this powerful novel of the descent into WWII makes a strong case for his political fiction. In the pressured atmosphere just preceding the outbreak of war, a secret agent, D., breaks with the “Organization”—Stalin's spy network—and escapes from Paris with his lover, Nadine. With extreme paranoia that he cloaks in exquisite manners, D. tells only one person where they are going: an old comrade named Daria. In the next, flash-forward section, Daria, having been arrested, is released from exile in a Soviet backwater and thrust into the siege of Leningrad. The third section opens in 1945 Berlin, where Daria witnesses a host of Germans, injured and half crazy, try to survive aerial bombardment—a moment that, as W.G. Sebald noted, has been deeply underserved by literature. In the final section, Daria escapes Europe and follows D. and Nadine to Mexico, escaping (she thinks) the long reach of Stalin's agents. Serge remains sophisticated even during the book's more noirish moments, and action sequences form an inseparable part of his hypnotic, prophetic vision.

December 15, 2007
In pre-World War II Paris, Secret Agent D. and his lover and protégée, Nadine, attempt to escape from the Soviet intelligence service, fearing constantly that they are being followed. D.'s colleague, Daria, arrives in Leningrad during the siege and tries to care for those around her. She then continues her espionage assignment in Berlin, where she works as a military camp nurse. Daria soon recognizes that everyonesoldiers and civilians alikeis scarred from the war. When she decides to escape, she follows a trail of clues to D. and Nadine's location in Mexico. Even here, after the war, violence follows her. Serge (18901947; "The Case of Comrade Tulayev") was a devoted revolutionary who participated in the Russian Revolution and spent time in French prisons and a Soviet labor camp before escaping to Europe and later, Mexico. His 1971 classic explores how the "noble" causes of war can lead to very real massacre. Greemen, who translates this work for the first time into English, writes the introduction. The tension is constant and dizzying; recommended for academic collections.Heather Wright, Cincinnati

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