All That Is Solid Melts into Air

February 24, 2014
In 1986 Moscow, as first-time novelist McKeon presents it, few expect the Soviet government to change: strikes fail, newspapers are corrupt, and many men and women can only find work in factories. Even Grigory, a successful surgeon, mourns his relentless routine: “The life that had silently formed around him seemed such a solid thing now.” McKeon conveys the U.S.S.R.’s rigidity through the miseries of his characters: Grigory’s wife Maria, a savvy journalist, loses her career, reputation, and marriage in one fell swoop when her anti-Soviet sympathies are discovered. But while hope for personal betterment is relentlessly checked, the horrific nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl proves that massive-scale change is possible. McKeon offers four clear fictional perspectives on Soviet history, and not once do the private affairs of his characters (Grigory and Maria’s love for one another; the tension between a nine-year-old piano prodigy and his mother, who has too much riding on her son’s success; a boy’s efforts to grapple with his father’s sudden death) bump up awkwardly against the historical account. Instead, McKeon’s fiction serves up, without cliché, what so many futuristic dystopian novels aspire to: a reminder that human beings can bring about their own demise.

Starred review from April 15, 2014
Top surgeon Grigory finds refuge from his failed marriage in his work at a Moscow hospital. His ex-wife, Maria, makes car parts at a factory, the numbing repetition crushing her rebellious spirit. Maria's nephew, a nine-year-old piano prodigy, practices noiselessly to avoid disturbing the neighbors at their dilapidated apartment building. And in a Ukrainian village, residents awaken to a crimson sky while in a nearby field the ears of cattle are dripping blood. An unthinkable tragedy has happened at the Chernobyl Power Plant ten miles away, and nothing will ever be the same. This startling debut novel is a love story set against the harrowing tale of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. As the government attempts to downplay and even cover up the catastrophe, people are dying, some quickly, others slowly over years, black sores appearing on their tongue and skin; out in the woods, "Mother nature is bleeding." VERDICT McKeon's thrilling writing is matter-of-fact but emotionally powerful, and his convincing characters precisely depict the perseverance of the human spirit in the darkest of times. A promising debut; highly recommended.--Lisa Block, Atlanta

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from May 1, 2014

Top surgeon Grigory finds refuge from his failed marriage in his work at a Moscow hospital. His ex-wife, Maria, makes car parts at a factory, the numbing repetition crushing her rebellious spirit. Maria's nephew is a nine-year-old piano prodigy, who practices noiselessly to avoid disturbing the neighbors at their dilapidated apartment building. And in a Ukrainian village, residents awaken to a crimson sky while in a nearby field the ears of cattle are dripping blood. An unthinkable tragedy has happened at the Chernobyl Power Plant, ten miles away, and nothing will ever be the same. This startling debut novel is a love story set against the harrowing tale of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. As the government attempts to downplay and even cover up the catastrophe, people are dying, some quickly, others slowly over years, black sores appearing on their tongues and skin; out in the woods, "Mother Nature is bleeding." VERDICT McKeon's thrilling narrative is matter-of-fact but emotionally powerful, and his convincing characters depict precisely the perseverance of the human spirit in the darkest of times. A promising debut; highly recommended. [See "Key Summer Titles," 2/3/14.]--Lisa Block, Atlanta

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from March 15, 2014
This debut novel is set in 1986, the year of the catastrophe at Chernobyl, and that disaster serves as the dramatic backdrop for the unfolding of action and character. First we meet Grigory Ivanovich Brovkin, a Moscow physician whose marriage to Maria has recently failed. Maria has a nephew, Yevgeni, her sister's son, who, at age 9, shows great promise as a piano prodigy, though his poverty militates against his success. For example, except when he goes for lessons at the house of his teacher, Mr. Leibniz, he has no piano to practice on but only a keyboard that makes no sound. Despite his promise, Yevgeni occasionally (and understandably) loses heart, especially when physically tormented, as he frequently is, by his gym teacher and fellow students. After the Chernobyl debacle, Grigory's medical skills are called on, for he must treat those who have been exposed to massive amounts of radiation. He feels dispirited by this as well as by official attempts to cover up the extent of the ecological and human disaster. McKeon takes the title for his novel from The Communist Manifesto, and everything solid does indeed seem to shift and evanesce as the events at Chernobyl reshape character and landscape. Eventually, Grigory pays a terrible physical price for his conscientious attention to duty, and Yevgeni, in a grace note of a conclusion set in 2011, receives a state prize for his virtuosity. A leisurely paced novel intended for those who like serious and thoughtful fiction.

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April 15, 2014
Set amidst the Chernobyl disaster, McKeon's debut novel loosely weaves the stories of a handful of characters whose lives are altered, both directly and indirectly, by effects of the 1986 catastrophe. Grigory, a chief surgeon struggling after his failed marriage, is called to the nuclear plant to provide aid in the wake of the accident. When he raises concerns about the ill effects of radiation and the government's lack of response, his authority is stripped. Meanwhile, teenage Artyom and his family evacuate their rural village for Minsk. Amid harrowing conditions at a resettlement camp, they desperately search for their missing father. Beyond the experiences of first responders and evacuees, McKeon portrays other characters coping with everyday life in Soviet Russia. Young Yevgeni, a piano prodigy relentlessly bullied by his classmates, lives with his mother and aunt in a tiny Moscow apartment. While he begins to test the bounds of parental authority, his aunt, Maria, begins to question her own circumstances. McKeon's graceful writing gives depth to his characters as they navigate indelibly changed landscapes and search for connection within chaos.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)