Book Review of The Translator by Harriet Crawley

Name of Book: The Translator 

Author: Harriet Crawley 

ISBN: 978-1-913394-83-7

Publisher:  Bitter Lemon Press 

Type of book: Russia, translators, second chances, 2017, oligarch life, secrets, spying, United Kingdom

Year it was published: 2023 

Summary:

The Sunday Best Thrillers of 2023. Financial Best Summer Thrillers of 2023. “A classic thriller of the new Cold War.” Antony Beevor, author of Stalingrad. A highly topical espionage novel about a Russian plot to cut the undersea communication cables linking the US to the UK. Also, a passionate love story between two people determined to stop this cataclysmic act.
Clive Franklin, a Russian language expert in the Foreign Office, is summoned unexpectedly to Moscow to act as translator for the British Prime Minister. His life is upended when he discovers that his former lover, Marina Volina, is the interpreter to the Russian President. Together they will try to stop the attack that could paralyze communications and collapse the Western economy.

Characters:

Main characters include Clive Franklin and Marina Volina. Clive Franklin is from England who has passion for anything Russian, be it literature, or idioms or culture. He also gets annoyed if he is referred to as interpreter. He is a translator for English prime minister and goes to Russia for help. Marina Volina is an English translator who has history with Clive and loves to run marathons and has helped foster two boys who happen to be brothers. She is determined, resourceful, meticulous and loyal. She is also close to the Russian President, often seeing him as an uncle. There are plenty of secondary characters such as Russian President, Varlamov, and plenty of friends and coworkers both Russian and British.  

 
Theme:

Secrets cannot be hidden 

Plot:

The story is in third person narrative from Clive Franklin's, Maria Volinas and Varlamovs points of view. Points of view do change frequently in a chapter. I definitely think I liked Varlamovs point of view to be honest. I think timeline is about a month or so of 2017 and it definitely has a lot of interesting angles on how the author tackled Russian presidents ambitions. There is also an interesting look at bribery and favoritism within higher echelons and the life of oligarchs in city vs regular Moscovites. I would definitely like to continue to read the sequels. 

 
Author Information:
(From goodreads) 

N/A

Opinion:

I am not sure why but I honestly have had a difficult time reading and reviewing this book. As someone from former Soviet Union I am not in denial about the ugliness and corruption that paint the country red, nor am I for their actions in Ukraine, and would strongly suggest for Russia to leave their expansion plans in a dumpster, and set it on fire while they are it. I think the difficult part for me comes from family history and what Russia/Soviet Union has done to Jews. While the author doesn't focus or address the Jewish hatred ( and I am not expecting her to do so,) but I think it's hard for me to understand and appreciate a country that never saw my family as part of them. It's also depressing to realize how little Russia has changed from 1930s or so. ( anyone know of Anatoli Rybakov? No? Didn't think so.) Despite my personal feelings, it's a well written book that grabs peoples attention and forces people to pay attention to the Russia that Russians know all too well.  

This was given for review 

4 out of 5
(0: Stay away unless a masochist 1: Good for insomnia 2: Horrible but readable; 3: Readable and quickly forgettable, 4: Good, enjoyable 5: Buy it, keep it and never let it go.)