The Soviet Sisters – ARC Book Review

Sisters Vera and Marya were brought up as good Soviets: obedient despite hardships of poverty and tragedy, committed to communist ideals, and loyal to Stalin. Several years after fighting on the Eastern front, both women find themselves deep in the mire of conflicts shaping a new world order in 1947 Berlin. When Marya, an interpreter, gets entangled in Vera’s cryptic web of deceit and betrayal, she must make desperate choices to survive—and protect those she loves.

Nine years later, Marya is a prisoner in a Siberian work camp when Vera, a doyenne of the KGB, has cause to reopen her case file and investigate the facts behind her sister’s conviction all those years ago in Berlin. As Vera retraces the steps that brought them both to that pivotal moment in 1947, she unravels unexpected truths and discoveries that call into question the very history the Soviets were working hard to cover up.

Epic and intimate, layered and complex, The Soviet Sisters is a gripping story of spies, blackmail, and double, triple bluff. With her dexterous plotting and talent for teasing out moral ambiguity, Anika Scott expertly portrays a story about love, conflicting world views, and loyalty and betrayal between sisters.

If you are a history buff or obsessed with historical fiction based on Cold War Events, then this book is one for you.

Vera and Marya are sisters and are devoted to their Soviet government despite all the hardships and despair they were facing as a family. Then Marya moves to Berlin, where she works as an interpreter and falls in love with a British man named Henry. Somehow, Marya ends up being imprisoned in Gulag, a notorious prison in the heart of Siberia and is a prison for war criminals and when the Stalin government changes, Vera would do anything to save her sister from the horrors of the prison.

This was a very different type of novel that I have read. The writing was great and the story is told between past back in 1947 when Marya was having a love affair with a British soldier and present day when Vera wants to find answers about her sister’s arrest. The story is also a bit political as well as Vera herself along with her husband works for the Soviet government. The author manage to show the complex relationship between Vera and Marya and also the affair between Marya and Henry. The ending was really good.

Overall, if you like a historical fiction with a Russian setting and based on Cold War then this one is for you–worth four stars.

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC. The review is based on my honest opinion only.