To The Last Page

A novel set in 1930s Russia might seem a bit of a leap for Gillian Slovo after her detective fiction and her powerful depictions of growing up in South Africa as the daughter of Joe Slovo, the South African Communist Party activist and journalist and activist Ruth First. But Ice Road is surprisingly consistent with her themes and experiences - political dissidents struggling to make a difference over the leaders who hold powerful authority over a country and at the same time trying to balance political activism with personal and family life. The impact of historical upheaval on individuals is nothing new in novelistic fiction - particularly in Russian fiction, with War and Peace  obviously being the summit to aspire to - so Slovo takes on quite a challenge here and could easily be well out of her depth, but her characters and their personal conflicts of interest are well depicted and quite authentic. There is the desire of Kolya to survive imprisonment for his wife and child, even...