Pulley's historical novel is based on the 1957 nuclear accident at Kyshtym. Valery, a Soviet scientist and political prisoner in Siberia, is given a new lease on life (sort of) when he is sent to a research facility to help with radiation-related studies. He quickly realizes that, contrary to official pronouncements, the area and its inhabitants are doused with radiation. But what can one person do against a corrupt system? Valery is a delightful character, frail and mild-mannered, always sure his doom is just around the corner. But his clinical detachment enables him to be extremely destructive as well. Shenkov, the KGB agent, is also a memorable character who knows the system is evil but tries to work within it to make it a little less evil. And fans of The Watchmaker of Filigree Street will delight in the appearance of another octopus.

It is so hard to write a review for books I absolutely loved. All I want to do is spam a series of exclamation points because that’s the closest way to convey how much I loved something. And it still isn’t enough or even close to accurate.

VALERY K is quintessential Pulley, from the broken, sad, queer middle-aged men to the *yearning* and even an emotional support octopus, but without that touch of surreal fantasy and magical realism seen in her prior work. But I didn’t miss the fantasy elements because this was just as well-researched, atmospheric, and quietly devastating. Pulley knows how and when to send a direct hit to your heart with just a sentence. There were moments I got so wrapped up in what was going on, I didn’t notice the tensing of my jaw and the tightening of my chest until well-paced and placed moments of reprieve.

I cannot explain how much I love the way Pulley writes historical fiction. The level of research, care, and attention to detail she puts into her work is inspiring, and incredibly enviable. VALERY K is based in historical fact, in the real events that surrounded the Kyshtym disaster in 1957, and we also get a crash course on radiation and radioactive isotopes, but in a way that is completely natural and fluid with the narrative and Valery’s character so it didn’t feel like awkward info dumping. If only this had been out during the nuclear physics and chemistry units I had in high school. Valery is a much better teacher than my high school ones.

Speaking of Valery, I loved him from start to end. He’s my new favorite Pulley hero. He’s multi-faceted and complicated (and seems to be autistic-coded) and I just want to wrap him up in a thick blanket and give him the lab of his dreams with all the animal companions he wants (he’s borderline a Disney princess). He’s far from a naïve and fragile damsel, but I just want him to be happy and safe. He’s so earnest but incredibly insightful and has a strong desire for and sense of justice. Every new thing I learned about him as I read just made me fall more and more in love with him.

The romance was more prominent than in her prior books but it was just as heart-wrenching and bittersweet and yet hopeful. The angst and the pining were so well done. Valery’s resignation, yearning, and happiness were tangible.

Pre-order this book. It’s full of dark and clever humor, beautifully haunting prose, carefully crafted tension, and morally gray characters that will stay with you beyond the pages.

This is my first Natasha Pulley novel which I picked to read based on the description which I thought would have a sci-fi element as it is described in NetGalley that way. Surprise, there is no discernible sci-fi to this novel. Science, yes. Fiction, yes. But Sci-fi, nope. What I got was a novel that, despite this miss-classification, I loved. I would more likely classify this as historical fiction, set in mid-20th century Soviet Union with a political prisoner who begins exploring the radiation levels at the site of a secret nuclear accident. The physics was interesting and understandable. The characters were complicated and human and the relationships they formed were central to the book. The story of finding out what happened at the location and trying to help others was engaging. The historical background of the novel made it even more interesting. I can't stop thinking about this book, particularly the historical aspects and the way the characters dealt with the difficult decisions they made. Highly recommend.

to begin, this review is spoilery and is very subjective. as all of my reviews are.

sometimes, you've outgrown your favourites, and it's okay.

i've essentially read all the pulley books and while the half life of valery k retains all of her wonderful trademarks—a moving, breathing (not to mention very accessible) historical backdrop riddled with bombs (sometimes literal, sometimes metaphorical/magic-related, sometimes it's not bombs but a nuclear disaster, as in the case of this book); sweet, awkward older men who have to wiggle their ways out of peril, also gay yearning; adorable children and octopuses; a unique type of narrative quirk that engages and entertains; lastly a neatly wrapped ending that warms the heart—my enjoyment unfortunately falters when it comes to this one.

for once, the subject matter is darker and more sensitive than in her other works, here, the quirky narrative voice that i used to adore almost seems eerie and i struggle to identify with it. also, i don't know if the kgb x zek pairing is the Choice. but don't worry, the kgb is just "forced" to do his job. he really does want to save lives. you see, after so many passages condemning the kgb's actions, you can safely ignore all of it because this one is different. he is one of the "good" ones. yep.

there is also a lack of emotional development when it comes to... well, everything really. a lot of it is shown and not tell, which, i'm sure, a lot of people are patting pulley on the back for because everyone knows telling is a literary crime. telling is not a crime. telling is just a convenient narrative device that, like any others, can enhance a piece of writing when deployed properly. in the case of this book, there are a lot of *fill in the blanks* that i have to mental gymnastic my way through. like the relationship between shenkov and anna, are they in love? is it a marriage of convenience? an open marriage? are they married just for the kids? you can't just throw sweethearts and pet names around in one instant and files for divorce in the next and expect me to develop a phd in your dynamic, my good sir.

i'd rather you just tell me, thanks.

the ending, in particular, is quite puzzling to me because somehow shenkov is okay with leaving his entire family (who are all dying of radiation, one way or another by the way) behind for... love? (it is love, Right?) the book never truly explains it fully and i find it hard to believe after all those chapters with his daughter—in addition to literally so many buildups leading up to this point, including this gloriously devastating confession:

"If I look sad it's because this is the happiest I've been for years, and you did that, but you aren't even one tenth mine and you never will be."

and you are telling me he's just going to leave his divorced wife (who is, once again, still dying from cancer) behind with their children because somehow it is HER responsibility to "get the children out" and he trusts her to do it? i don't care if he's being wanted, bro. those are his children we are talking about here. in fact, that ending just... weirded me out in so many ways that i'm not even sure an explanation can salvage this man's character for me. or valery's, for that matter. this lack of emotions is nothing new in pulley's books, of course, but in this one, it was impossible for me to tune it out or even get used to it because there was no charming plot (looking at you watchmaker of filigree street trios) to distract me.

lastly, i think i'm tired of pulley resorting to fridging women so that her m/m pairing can ride off into the sunset (whether it's deserved or not). this is consistently the case with her books and clearly a deliberate choice, i should be disappointed, considering how the jabs at the patriarchy are also plentiful in her books, unfortunately, so is the misogyny.

Set in 1963 Soviet Union, this immersive story of a scientist (and former prisoner) banished to a bizarre and secret nuclear wasteland/scientific center is gripping, desparately sad at times, and always brilliantly written.

This does require a careful read, as timelines do shift, but it's absolutely worth the time and consideration.


Many thanks to Bloomsbury USA and NetGalley for a digital review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Natasha Pulley always manages to draw me in from the first page, and make me fall unexpectedly in love with her characters. I'm happy to say that The Half Life of Valery K lived up to this expectation completely. And while there is no fantasy element to this book the way there is in her previous ones, it did not feel lacking. The in depth but engaging discussions of the scientific elements of the story filled that gap for me. I loved this book and absolutely recommend it.

The story is about Valery Kolkhanov, a biochemist specializing in the effects of radiation on living things, who starts the book as a political prisoner in a Russian gulag, where he has been for six years, and expects to be for four more, or until he dies. His life takes a surprise turn however when he is sent to a secret government lab in the middle of a mysteriously irradiated forest. The government claims everything is safe, and one does not argue with the Soviet government, but Valery cannot help but notice things are more deeply amiss than the research they brought him in for would indicate. In addition to that, he experiences kindness for the first time in a long time from an unexpected source, Konstantin Shenkov, the KJB officer in charge of security. For Shenkov, it is a punishment placement, and as the book unfolds we learn more about each man and how they came to be in this situation.

I loved Valery as a character, it is possible he is my favorite character from any Pulley novel. He is queer and most definitely neurodivergent, in a time and place when neither was accepted. He is the kind of person who cannot see an injustice without trying to do something to help. Part of this stems from having been in a terrible situation where he was unable to help, which we see in one of the flashback chapters, but part is just his innate nature. Shenkov the KGB officer is in his own way trying to help people, despite his position as the one who takes dissenters and rabble rousers out back and shoots them. He is in a sense trying to put the fire out while inside the house, but he is trying.

If you have read any of Pulley's novels before, you know the general direction it is going to go, but that is not a bad thing. How we get there is always different and fascinating, and I loved how much I actually learned about what radiation is and what exactly it can do in reading this book. A complaint I've had with her books before has been that the women are either unnecessarily unpleasant or just get killed off, but I am happy to say that was not the case in this book, with Shenkov's wife Anna being an excellent character, and Valery's friend Svetlana not having too much screen time but making the most of what she does have.


A couple of content warnings: there is an off screen sexual assault, and period realistic homophobia and ableism

The Half Life of Valery K
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (5/5)
This book is absolutely fantastic. The characters are incredibly well-written. Their emotions are relatable and their growth is easy to root for. The plot is amazing. It’s equal parts contemplative and suspenseful. I love Natasha Pulley’s work. Her characters are always so lovingly crafted and her plots are always so compelling. This book is wonderful, and I highly encourage people to read it.

What if, at the height of the cold war, there was a secret nuclear facility hidden deep in the Urals? What if there was a deadly leak that was hidden from residents, the country, and the rest of the world?

I kept thinking of Chernobyl, which isn't so secret. About the devistation from that catastophe. But the tendency, even with something of that scale, is to think of it in overall terms. The effect on the environment. The lack of regulation. Large terms.

This book makes what happened small terms. One scientist. One KGB officer. His wife. His kids. Very personal, which makes what happened so much more terrifying. Odd how the thought of a large disaster should be what is terrifying. It is the reality of the impact on people you feel you know that brings that terror home. And in this story, we feel we know these people. That they are real. That the impact on their lives really happened.

Amazing, well-told story of an actual event (and not Chernobyl).

over the course of a month natasha pulley has become one of my favorite authors, and the half life of valery k has only secured her place at the top of that list!

it follows the standard pulley format -- lonely man gets caught up in a fantastical (in this case so science-heavy it feels fantastical) mystery and finds purpose/love along the way -- set in her usual lush historical setting -- a secret soviet nuclear testing facility. what sets valery k apart from her previous works is its stellar character work, in particular with the protagonist. the most broken of the pulley protags, valery's struggles are starkly rendered and meticulously paced in how they are revealed in the narrative.

this entire book, nevermind the mystery and the plot, is worth reading solely as an example of how to nail the execution of a tragic, angst-filled protag without it feeling too ham-fisted or heavy-handed in wringing out sympathy from the reader. valery k has a dry, almost self-deprecating humor, poking fun at everything from academia to communism. valery himself is a big source of this humor, calling himself a "creepy little abacus" person and "funny harmless little science elf" less than a month after he was transferred out of a sub-zero siberian gulag. the tragic events that lead to him becoming a political prisoner, however, are discussed with a matter-of-fact tact that only endears him as a multi-faceted character: this is what happened, don't pity me, this is just how things are.

what also amazes me is how slice-of-life it is, and how the day-to-day life in a nuclear testing facility doesn't at all contrast with the urgency of the potential government conspiracy valery stumbles into. the plot is slow, but the warm tone makes the slowness feel intentional and promising. methodical in its domesticity, developing not just valery's rough transition from naive biochemist to tattooed political prisoner to something else, but a soft, slow-burning romance that is an absolutely pleasant, complicated, well-deserved surprise.

the only issue i have with valery kis its ending -- not the ending itself necessarily, but the plot beats/character decisions taken to arrive there. the women characters in pulley novels, while always well-rounded, are also usually sidelined when it comes to the primary romance. valery k is no different, and in particular includes a female character who's married to valery's love interest and makes certain decisions in the third act that are outright absurd, seemingly made only to take her out of the picture so that the main romance can go about undisturbed. it came entirely out of left-field, and i still can't wrap my head around a reasonable in-universe explanation as to why it happened. i understand that including a queer relationship in a historical setting while also gunning for a happy ending for them is a challenge, but surely it could have been achieved through means that aren't disingenuous to the characters.

other than that, i absolutely loved valery k. i've already purchased the hard-cover and can't wait to read it again. highly recommend!
ew.

As a huge fan of Natasha Pulley’s work, I was thrilled to get an eARC of The Half Life of Valery K. I was completely absorbed in the story from start to finish and so sad when it ended. The main characters have interesting back stories, are flawed, lonely, traumatized, and morally ambiguous at times. The main character is neurodivergent though it is never explicitly addressed. I would have liked more of the side characters, particularly the Anna and Svetlana. I loved the way the story progressed and the way the back stories were inserted at just the right time. While many of Pulley’s other works have a fantasy/magical element, this one does not. The realistic details -of the prison experiences with the Russian mob, the tap code, KgB monitoring, effects of radiation- drew me in and kept me interested. The queer romance was sweet and subtle (one of Pulley’s trademarks) and Albert, the octopus was a fun touch. The details about gender equality in Russia at the time were a nice touch and the juxtaposition with the couple in England was thought-provoking. The author’s note at the end inspired me to research the real City 40, the Kyshtym disaster, the alien baby and more. This would appeal to a broad audience- fans of historical fiction, anyone curious about nuclear power or disasters, radiation and its effects, coverups, human tests, Russia, LGBTQ romance, mystery. Highly recommend. Thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for the eArc and the opportunity to review this title.

it’s 1963. former nuclear specialist valery kolkhanov gets swept from a frozen prison camp to city 40, a mysterious town that houses a set of nuclear reactors & a forest that has rusted from within. his task? serve out the rest of his prison term research the effect of radiation on local fauna. but as he digs deeper, something doesn’t add up - the radiation levels aren’t right and there are secrets taken to the grave.

i think pulley tricked me into attending a chemistry lesson.

this is different from pulley’s other books, in that there’s no magical realism, no event spanning time and defying physics. just two people caught in the eye of a political storm that could tear them apart, the subterfuge, the trauma. the way it carries itself in iron chains around our necks even as we seek comfort. an intimate tragedy.

and yet, this is unmistakably pulley. what can i say about pulley that i haven’t said before?

how there’s a method to the madness; a formula perfected so finely that it never fails to leave me breathless and reeling. the way she weaves each story in a way that feels like literal magic - take what you know from the history books but make it queer and infuse it with sad, tragic, frayed men. so desperately lonely but with a heart of fire.

how she doesn’t write romance per se, but writes about love. in the past, it’s the relentless waiting, the red thread that spans through time and history, an intimate unspoken understanding, an elbow touch.

here, its kindness in a world so harrowing and bleak, safety in a place that isn’t, the choice of kindness when its so much easier to be cruel, the arms around you when your lungs don’t work, the warm touch that tries to ease away embedded shards under skin. and as always, an inexplicable pull.

how she writes in a way where even the simplest sentences feel like a gut punch? an electric shock. so raw and yet so beautiful. how i want to gnaw on my knuckles while reading them and how she leaves me aching for a place that i don’t even know.

how its only april, but i already know this book will make an appearance on my top 10 countdown in december. i am so, so utterly in love.

I'm surprised I didn't grind my teeth down to nothing reading this book. In Soviet era Russia an imprisoned scientist is released to work in a secret, highly irradiated, city on the effects of atomic energy. The stakes were incredibly high. There wasn't a moment where I felt safe. Early on I realized what is rational to me held no merit and anything could happen. In the background of this incredible story a relationship builds so quietly, and so sweetly and realistic, I knew I was a goner when it came to these characters.



I finished The Half Life of Valery K a few weeks ago. I'm having a hard time expressing how much I loved this book. It was a rough read that hurt pretty much all of the time, so if that's what you're into...with beautiful character development and fascinating scientific fiction speculated from real history. A new favorite.

Thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for this arc.

This was a page-turner and I couldn't put it down. The plot itself was compelling, but the subtext was equally compelling. A good portrayal of the cold brutality of a totalitarian regime. Occasionally there would be a narrative device or a character's interior thought relayed that felt decidedly 21st-century/Western, but it was never enough to disrupt my suspension of disbelief or investment in the characters/outcome. Recommend!

I have to say that I am pretty impressed. Every book I've read by Pulley has thus far been amazing. How do they keep getting away with this? Lol. I thought the writing style, the subject matter, the characterization was all so good. I love the way that Natasha writes, their writing style feels much more casual than a lot of authors so I find myself immediately sucked in by the comradery of it all. 5/5 I recommend! I also recommend their backlog as it is all awesome!

Oof, Pulley's writing always has a way of singing to me. This wasn't my favorite of her books, but it was still a great, solid read that I enjoyed spending time with.

This didn't have her usual fantastical elements, and was instead solidly historical fiction. It did have other Pulley hallmarks though, including:

- A lonely, quietly brilliant protagonist.
- An octopus.
- Clockwork.
- A wibbly sort of plot.
- Quiet yearning.

This was a dark novel, that deals with human atrocities, and in the case of both the protagonist and his love interest there's a sense their crimes (and there are a lot of them) matter less than the grand picture of suffering that is the setting because they're the good guys. I also want to say that I think one of the reasons this book didn't resonate with me in quite the same was as her others is because wow, science. There is a lot of discussion of radiation, which I understand is, you know, a large piece of the plot, but I would have liked more talk of feelings and less of curies.

Overall verdict is I love Pully and will read anything she writes forevermore. The end.

We have to standard Pulley formula of small sad man + big sad man + weird mystery/setting and some elbow touching for good measure (I'm going to make a compilation of all the elbow touching and the Pulley-verse someday) and it works! Every time! I also learned so much about radiation. Pulley never half asses anything and that includes giving us all a lesson in radioactive isotopes. I, for one, love it. Shocking I know. And how she looks at these strange events that have happened in real life and is like you know what this needs? To be queer and sad! And she's so right

Valery has become one of my all time favorite characters. Is it the autistic coding that is extremely relatable? The fact that he has a pet octopus named Albert? His intense need to make things right, no matter what? Yes, to all of the above. We have a whole crew of interesting characters this time though and I loved having more people on page than usual.

And of course the writing. What else can I even say about how Pulley writes at this point. The heart ache that it gives me is like none other. I feel homesick for a place I've never even been. Even just the most basic lines are infused with a magic that I can't explain. "He was luminous with joy. Or not joy, the pain-joy that came from trying to memorize it exactly because he would never see anything like it again" just makes me want to weep.

I need to physical copy in my hands so I can immediately reread and underline the whole thing, as one does.

I consumed this book in two settings, and it was like a fever. Time descended on me, closed over me, and for the space of a few hundred pages, the world was composed of only myself and this book. After reading, I immediately purchased Pulley’s other books, and recently raced through The Watchmaker of Filigree Street and The Lost Future of Pepperharrow as if someone might take them from my hands at any moment. It’s been weeks, and I still can’t shake the rhythms and cadences of these stories out of my brain. I can’t get enough of them. In the end, I am certain—to borrow some of Coleridge’s words—that I'd know a Natasha Pulley story if I found it wandering the desert.

A deeply moving, sharply tender, and unforgettable story. Highly Recommended.

Valery Kolkhanov is six years into a ten-year sentence at a Soviet gulag when he is transferred to work at a lab at the mysterious City 40: a small city in the middle of an irradiated marsh, home to five nuclear reactors and a thousand secrets. Conditions at City 40 are infinitely better than the gulag, but there’s something very wrong going on at City 40: rumors about a strange explosion six years ago, radiation charts that bear no correlation with reality, and an intentional lack of radiation equipment. But asking questions is a dangerous proposition in the Soviet Union, and some secrets are meant to stay hidden.

WELCOME BACK TO NATASHA PULLEY LAND, WHERE EVERYTHING HURTS!

At this point, Pulley has a very specific formula. If you liked her previous books, you will love this one. If you didn’t like her previous books, this probably won’t be your cup of tea. I happen to adore her books, so this was extremely up my alley and had me staying up past any reasonable bedtime because I couldn’t put the book down.

I could go on about why I love Pulley’s specific formula: her focus on small kindnesses in the face of immense cruelty and coldness; her masterful building of tension and suspense; the way she builds a relationship on the smallest, subtlest moments and gestures into something grand and beautiful and breathtaking; her penchant for really, really interesting historical settings; how all her books include adorably anthropomorphic animals (I am overjoyed to announce that we have another octopus in this book, his name is Albert and I love him). But I’ve talked about all those things in other Pulley book reviews, so I’m going to attempt to not be repetitive.

Pulley has long had an issue with casting her female characters as villains, or at least roadblocks for the protagonists. It’s a perfectly fine trope to pull once, but she’s used it in all her books except The Bedlam Stacks. I’m really pleased to say that Pulley has finally course corrected here! Not that there aren’t any female villains, but there are a lot of female characters in general and they come in a variety of flavors and personalities. It’s a refreshing addition of balance to the book, and one Pulley really needed.

One of the Pulley’s favorite tropes are characters with good moral cores who have been put in situations where they feel, rightly or wrongly, that their only course of action is to cause pain and hurt. That trope is turned up to eleven in this book, as is appropriate for a novel about radiation experiments in Soviet Russia. With the Cold War raging, the stakes have never been higher for Soviet scientists. Radiation experiments could discover ways to mitigate or even cure radiation poisoning, saving millions of lives if the US ever nukes the Soviet Union. But radiation experiments can only be effective if a fair amount of ethics are thrown out the window. Is it worth harming some to save many? Where is the line?

It’s a line that’s both fuzzy and constantly shifting for many of the characters, and it raises questions of culpability and judgement. Is it evil to put the potential needs of many ahead of the very real needs of a few? Does that math change if “many” is measured in millions and “few” is measured in thousands? Does the fact that we know in the modern day that most of the results of these radiation experiments were useless render those decisions and that math less moral in hindsight?

These are not easy questions to answer, and not ones Pulley even begins to attempt to answer. Her characters are morally compromised, and they know it, and they hate it. It tortures them, what they’ve done. But they also still did those things. And despite those cruelties, despite how cold and awful the grinding machine of society is, her characters still find space for kindness. In Pulley’s world, kindness is the ultimate saving grace.

I imagine more than a few readers will be turned off by the moral compromises the more sympathetic characters make, and I get it. But I don’t think Pulley is condoning anyone’s behavior – far from it. Rather, she presents situations in which good people make really awful decisions and explains how they get to those decisions. No one is off the hook here.

Side note: Pulley’s original title, Rust Country, was a hell of a lot better than The Half Life of Valery K. But book trends are a thing, so I understand why the publisher pushed for it. Please shelve this book next to The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August and all the other The X Lives of Y books.

I always come out of a Natasha Pulley book feeling like my heart has grown several sizes to better accommodate all the emotions the book has summoned in me. She has such a magical way with words, and her full talents are on display here. This book is a real gem, and a worthy successor to Pulley’s absolute masterpiece The Kingdoms. I want to spend ten hours on Wikipedia reading about radiation, and I want to reread this book immediately so I can feel everything all over again.

(Note from Miriam in the future: I did in fact reread this book immediately.)

Spoilers ahead!

The Kingdoms was my first Natasha Pulley novel (and I absolutely loved it), and as soon as I finished I immediately looked up her other works. This was the one that most appealed to me, so I'm incredibly grateful I was able to get the ARC.

All in all, this book was a hit for me. It was a decent amount darker than what I usually reach for, which I expected based on the description. I knew nothing about City 40 when I started reading, so I was fully engaged and on the edge of my seat waiting to see what happened next.

Much like with The Kingdoms, I wasn't quite sure who Valery's love interest was supposed to be at first. I really wasn't expecting it to be Shenkov. He was a character that I paid little to no attention to right up until the point it became obvious he was the love interest. The deeper I got into the story, the more interesting I found him to be. We find out he joined the KGB because he disagreed with how they handled things and he felt the best way to make a change was from the inside. So you have this character who is respectful and kind and thoughtful, but who also murders people who goes against the government in any way. It was certainly an interesting juxtaposition. I do feel Shenkov's violence throughout the book was very glossed over, which I'm assuming is supposed to be a reflection of the time period? It make sense if that's the case, but it was a bit odd when Valery would find out Shenkov killed someone the night before and they're already on a new topic a page later. As a whole, I didn't dislike their relationship, but I wouldn't say I was overly invested in it either. I'm ultimately glad they got a "happy ending," but I would say I was far more interested in the larger plot than their relationship.

I've seen a few reviews discuss how Valery should have figured out what was going on sooner because it was obvious, but I strongly disagree. After six years of literally being in survival mode, I think it's fully believable it took him a bit of time to figure out what was going on. He started realizing something was off immediately, so I don't think that was making him clueless for the sake of the plot. I've also seen people say his PTSD symptoms only occurred when it was convenient to the plot, but again, I disagree. PTSD is a very complex condition, and I think that's reflected in his character. Just because he didn't spend the entire book dissociating or having a panic attack doesn't mean he wasn't clearly displaying symptoms of PTSD the entire time.

The part of this book that didn't quite work for me was the ending, and that's for two reason. The first is that Alice and the kids, for whatever reason, weren't able to join them in getting to the embassy in Moscow. I don't see why that was necessary, other than to allow Valery and Shenkov to end up together in England alone with no distractions to their relationship. The second is that Shenkov didn't really seem all that upset that, as far as he knew, his wife and children (one of whom is dying) were still in Russia in a radioactive city that could explode at any moment. I know he said that's just how it is in that time for people like him, but it felt a bit downplayed considering we saw how much he loves his children throughout the rest of the book.

Despite my issues with the ending, I still found this to be a very engaging,entertaining book, and I will definitely be purchasing a physical copy when it comes out.

Valery Kolkhanov is six years into a ten year sentence in the Gulag. He's been doing okay, even now that he's noticed his bones fracturing for lack of calcium. He never thinks about his life Before, when he was a biochemist, but suddenly, his old mentor springs him from the taiga and plops him down at her new lab in a radioecological research facility known as City 40. He's given a stopwatch with instructions about how long he can be outdoors before becoming sick from the radiation.

It's 1963 and the Soviets are terrified that the Americans will discover City 40 and bomb it, but it only takes a day for Valery to realize that the real danger is in the program itself. He's horrified to realize that six years of keeping his head down in the Gulag is lost when he's back in his own field. He can't help but point out the bad math in the calculations of danger which puts him more and more in contact with the KGB agent in charge of City 40, who's already told Valery that he has shot a scientist this week who made the same observations. But somehow, he does not shoot the little skinny starved biochemist then and there. What's that about?

"The Half Life of Valery K" is creepy and frightening, but punctuated by humanity, hope, and even love. It's impossible to put the book down without wondering when you'll be able to get back to it. Natasha Pulley's characters are surprising and filled with contradictions. The suspense almost hurts.

Then you find out that the story is based on a real, utterly terrifying incident while in real time Russian soldiers are surrounding Chernobyl as they invade Ukraine. This Soviet-era historical novel is scary and hell and not to be missed.