Snowdrops

Shortlisted for the 2011 Man Booker Prize

Shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger 2011

Nick Platt is an English lawyer living in Moscow during thewild Russian oil boom. Riding the subway on a balmySeptember day, he rescues two willowy sisters, Masha andKatya, from a would-be purse snatcher. Nick soon begins tofeel something for Masha that he is pleased to believe is love.As the snow starts to fall, the sisters introduce him to TatianaVladimirovna, their aged aunt and the owner of a valuableapartment. Before summer arrives, Nick will travel down to thesweaty Black Sea and up to the Arctic, and he’ll make disturbingdiscoveries about his job, his lover and, most of all, himself.

Snowdrops is a fast-paced drama that unfolds during abeautiful but lethally cold Russian winter. Ostensibly a storyof naive foreigners and cynical natives, the novel becomessomething richer and darker: a tale of erotic obsession, self-deceptionand moral freefall. It is set in a land of hedonism anddesperation, corruption and kindness, magical hideaways anddebauched nightclubs; a place where secrets, and corpses, cometo light when the snows thaw.