The Half Life of Valery K

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What to expect

Bloomsbury presents The Half Life of Valery K by Natasha Pulley, read by Jot Davies.

A SUNDAY TIMES BEST BOOK OF 2022

The Times Historical Fiction Book of the Month

The truth must come out.

In 1963, in a Siberian gulag, former nuclear specialist Valery Kolkhanov has mastered what it takes to survive: the right connections to the guards for access to food and cigarettes, the right pair of warm boots to avoid frostbite, and the right attitude toward the small pleasures of life. But on one ordinary day, all that changes: Valery’s university mentor steps in and sweeps Valery from the frozen prison camp to a mysterious unnamed town hidden within a forest so damaged it looks like the trees have rusted from within.

Here, Valery is Dr. Kolkhanov once more, and he’s expected to serve out his prison term studying the effect of radiation on local animals. But as Valery begins his work, he is struck by the questions his research raises: what, exactly, is being hidden from the thousands who live in the town? And if he keeps looking for answers, will he live to serve out his sentence?

Based on real events in a surreal Soviet city, and told with bestselling author Natasha Pulley’s inimitable style, The Half Life of Valery K is a sweeping historical adventure.

Critics Review

This clever, gripping novel is based on the true story of a nuclear research facility at Chelyabinsk, where an accident in 1957 caused acute radiation sickness in the area. Natasha Pulley’s wry, intelligent style works well to depict the Soviet world of lies and secrets, and Valery’s naive goodness is a mirror to the murky world he inhabits
The Times, Book of the Month
An inventive, mind-bending book
Sunday Times: Best Books of 2022: Historical Fiction
High drama meets gallows humour on a foundation of the real life 1957 Kyshym disaster in Russia
Strong Words, Books of the Year 2022
History and imagination collide to stunning effect in this utterly beguiling and addictive novel. Unflinching, darkly funny, and all too easy to believe, The Half Life Of Valery K is the kind of book that haunts the reader long after the last page is turned
Erin Kelly
Pulley adds to her impressive oeuvre with another exquisite novel. Many of the author’s trademarks are on display here: a finely-drawn period setting, a vein of dark humour, a plot blending historical fact and fiction, and a protagonist seeking to do the right thing in the face of a brutal political machine. An illuminating and immersive historical tale
Vaseem Khan
Beautifully written and perfectly paced, this is another triumph from my favourite living author
Katie Lumsden
Brilliantly conceived, vibrantly realized, and complexly suspenseful
Booklist
Her dark humor, which turns on the blind faith given to Soviet authority figures despite their outlandish claims, combines with complex characters and a clear understanding of radiation science to yield an explosive blend. The chilling result feels all too plausible
Publishers Weekly
Pulley’s impeccable prose, vivid and shot through with tenderness, lends a glint of lightness to this unsettling story
Daily Mail
A timely insight into the Soviet regime in the 1960s, it is never bleak, but tender, elegant and so very clever ... It’s a story I won’t forget
Tor Udall
Engrossing
Independent
Wildly inventive, full of eeriness and magic, and fiendishly intricate plots
The Times on The Lost Future of Pepperharrow
An awe-inspiring feat of imagination and passion
Catriona Ward on The Kingdoms
Lavish world-building and breakneck plotting … Clear a weekend and let yourself be absorbed
New York Times Book Review on The Kingdoms

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