RED STARS

Soviet twins use diaries to recount their experiences during the Siege of Leningrad.

When Germany invades the Soviet Union in 1941, the city soviet council arranges for young people, including Viktor and Nadya, 12-year-old White twins, to flee Leningrad on trains reserved just for children. Before their departure, their father gives the siblings notebooks in which to record what’s unfolding. When the twins become separated and sent on different trains, this tension sets the story in motion. While Nadya’s train breaks down, Viktor ends up on a collective farm. And as Nadya and her companions continue on foot, eventually joining Soviet sailors in a fortress; Viktor, braving a labor camp and other obstacles, sets out to reunite with Nadya. While they describe their nonstop survival against hunger, cold, enemy forces, and death at every turn, interspersed archival photos, maps, propaganda posters, and fictionalized artifacts make the story resemble a documentary novel. Reports from a Col. Smirnov in 1946 frame the children’s documents, presented as having been reassembled into chronologically arranged accounts. Blue ink delineates Nadya’s narration and red, Viktor’s. It’s up to Smirnov to decide their guilt or innocence regarding charges brought in relation to the events recounted within. An added layer of mystery concerning a Soviet agent helps bring to a close this complex, lengthy story translated from Italian.

Experienced readers will enjoy piecing together clues and weighing evidence in this historical adventure story.