Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith

Unputdownable. his word is not in every dictionary, but it is one that booksellers often use—and the one we use to describe our Barnes & Noble Recommends selections. Nothing gives us more pleasure than recommending books that we have read and loved, and finding unputdownable books gives us the greatest pleasure of all. Barnes & Noble Recommends provides us with the opportunity to share such books with you. Each is chosen by a group of our discriminating and independent-minded booksellers from across the country. Each one is a book we are sure you will recommend to another reader. Our inaugural selection was Diane Setterfield’s The Thirteenth Tale, a story of romantic suspense about a bookseller’s daughter and an author with a mysterious past. Other choices have included Chris Bohjalian’s The Double Bind, a work combining a thriller’s pace with the depth of a psychological drama; Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist, a novel capturing the terror of today’s world in one unforgettable voice; Sarah Addison Allen’s Garden Spells, an enchanting tale of homecoming and homemaking; Maggie O’Farrell’s The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, a taut narrative that lays bare the hidden landscape of the heart; and Belong to Me by Marisa de los Santos, a heartwarming story of old friends, new acquaintances, and the ties that bind them. All are riveting reads as well as books worthy of stimulating discussion—as is our newest selection: Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith. A Ruthless Murderer, a Loyal Stalinist—and a Riveting Thriller A gripping novel about one man’s dogged pursuit of a serial killer against the opposition of Stalinist state security forces, Child 44 is at once suspenseful and provocative. Tom Rob Smith’s remarkable debut thriller powerfully dramatizes the human cost of loyalty, integrity, and love in the face of totalitarian terror. A decorated war hero driven by dedication to his country and faith in the superiority of Communist ideals, Leo Demidov has built a successful career in the Soviet security network, suppressing ideological crimes and threats against the state with unquestioning efficiency. When a fellow officer’s son is killed, Leo is ordered to stop the family from spreading the notion that their child was murdered. For in the official version of Stalin’s worker’s paradise, such a senseless crime is impossible—an affront to the Revolution. But Leo knows better: a murderer is at large, cruelly targeting children, and the collective power of the Soviet government is denying his existence. Leo’s doubt sets in motion a chain of events that changes his understanding of everything he had previously believed. Smith’s deftly crafted plot delivers twist after chilling twist as it lays bare the deceit of the regime that enveloped an impoverished people in paranoia. In a shocking effort to test Leo’s loyalty, his wife Raisa is accused of being a spy. Leo’s refusal to denounce her strips him of his rank; the couple is banished from Moscow. Humiliated, renounced by his enemies, and deserted by everyone save Raisa, Leo realizes that his redemption rests on finding the vicious serial killer who is eviscerating innocent children and leaving them to die in the bleak Russian woods. The narrative unfolds at a breathless pace, exposing the culture of fear that turns friends into foes and forces families to hide devastating secrets. As Leo and Raisa close in on the serial killer, desperately trying to stay a step ahead of the government’s relentless operatives, the reader races with them through a web of intrigue to the novel’s heart-stopping conclusion. is only ambition was a general one: to serve his country, a country that had defeated fascism, a country that provided free education and health care, that trumpeted the rights of workers around the world, that paid his father—a munitions worker on an assembly line—a salary comparable to that of a fully qualified doctor. Although his own employment in the State Security force was frequently unpleasant he understood its necessity, the necessity of guarding their revolution from enemies both foreign and domestic, from those who sought to undermine it and those determined to see it fail. To this end Leo would lay down his life. To this end he’d lay down the lives of others. ~ from Child 44 About the Author he serial killer in Child 44, Tom Rob Smith’s first novel, was suggested by the true story of Andrei Chikatilo, who murdered over fifty women and children in Russia during the 1980s. By setting his fiction three decades before Chikatilo’s crimes, the author has added powerful elements of political suspense to his page-turning tale. “I moved it to the 1950s,” Smith explains, “because that’s when opposing the state was most dangerous. You’d lose your life in the ’50s; if you did it in the ’80s you’d lose your apartment.” His considerable research into Stalin’s Soviet Union supports the powerful human drama at his story’s heart. Though Child 44 is Smith’s first novel, his skill as a storyteller and his experience as a screenwriter are apparent in the book’s absorbing plot and suspenseful pacing. He points to his days on commuter trains as another influence. “There was no way to do that journey without a book: a book you could get wrapped up in, a book you could read standing up, a book you’d miss your tube stop for. That was the kind of book I wanted to write.” Originally from Norbury in South London, the 28-year-old Smith started writing plays in school and continued while he attended Cambridge, from which he graduated in 2001. After spending a year in Italy on a creative writing scholarship, he became assistant story editor for a British soap opera, then moved to Phnom Penh with the BBC to be the story consultant for Cambodia’s first soap opera. He currently lives in London. The film rights to Child 44 have been sold to director Ridley Scott. Get the most out of Child 44 with these reading group discussion questions. 1. Leo’s character evolves over the course of the book. What do you see as the most significant catalyst for change? 2. What propels Leo to go forward in his quest for the murderer: fear, compassion, or a sense of justice? 3. The relationship between Vasili and Leo is contentious from the beginning. Does Vasili feel pure hate, contempt, or jealousy for Leo? Why? 4. When Raisa reveals the truth of their marriage to Leo, were you surprised at his reaction? Would you have made similar choices under the circumstances? When does personal conviction trump duty and loyalty? 5. Who do you think was ultimately responsible for incriminating Raisa? What would it be like to live in a society in which everyone is under suspicion of crimes against the state? 6. Does the book’s portrayal of life in a totalitarian state remind you of any other books? 7. In 1953, the year of Stalin’s death, there were 2,468,524 prisoners in the Gulag system. Do you think that legacy affects Russian culture today? 8. Which character’s duplicity or innocence did you find most surprising, and why? Further Reading: Gulag: A History by Anne Applebaum I Want to Live: The Diary of a Young Girl in Stalinist Russia by Nina Lugovskaya The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn A Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine by Robert Conquest Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar by Simon Montefiore Everyday Stalinism: Ordinary Life in Extraordinary Times—Soviet Russia in the 1930s by Sheila Fitzpatrick Praise for Child 44 FROM OUR BOOKSELLERS “A pulse-raising, edge-of-your-seat thriller!” Laura Brauman, Bourbonnais, IL “Expertly atmospheric, and brilliantly quease-inducing.” Seth Christenfeld, White Plains, NY “If Thomas Harris had set a story in the Gulag, this would have been it.” Melissa Willits, Carmel, IN “A fascinating look into Stalinist Russia.” Michele Williams, Long Beach, CA “A brilliant debut thriller that fans of Gorky Park will devour.” Margie Turkett, Annapolis, MD FROM WRITERS & REVIEWERS “This is truly a remarkable debut novel. A rare blend of great insight, excellent writing, and a refreshingly original story... Favorable comparisons to Gorky Park are inevitable, but Child 44 is in a class of its own.” Nelson de Mille “Child 44 is a remarkable debut novel—inventive, edgy, and relentlessly gripping from the first page to the last.” Scott Turow “Achingly suspenseful, full of feeling and the twists and turns that one expects from le Carré at his best, Child 44 is a tale as fierce as any Russian wolf. It grabs you by the throat and never lets you go.” Robert Towne, Academy Award-winning screenwriter of Chinatown “Child 44 telegraphs the talent and class of its writer from its opening pages, transporting you back to the darkest days of postwar Soviet Russia with assured efficiency and ruthlessly drawing you into its richly atmospheric and engross- ing tale.” Raymond Khoury, bestselling author of The Last Templar Child 44 List Price $24.99 B&N Price $17.49 Member Price $14.99 Share the Experience Meet Tom Rob Smith at Barnes & Noble Visit www.bn.com/recommends for information about author appearances and other in-store events, including reading group discussions at select stores. Join Tom Rob Smith in Our Online Book Club Discuss Child 44 with the author and other readers. Log on to www.bn.com/bookclubs throughout June. Start Your Own Reading Group Ask a bookseller for our free guide, or visit www.bn.com/recommends.

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