This novel, the first in a trilogy, takes inspiration from the crimes of Andrei Chikatilo, also known as the Rostov Ripper, the Butcher of Rostov, and the Red Ripper. Chikatilo was convicted of and executed for committing 52 murders in the Soviet Union, though his crimes occurred after the Stalin era. In addition to highlighting the problem of Soviet-era crime in a state where "there is no crime", the novel explores the paranoia of the age, the education system, the secret police apparatus, orphanages, homosexuality in the USSR and mental hospitals. [2] This is a very unique novel which reminded me again and again of George Orwell's 1984 but this one, I loved. I didn't really like the characters (at the end of the book, they are likable) but they all are certainly understandable and interesting. Tom Rob Smith is definitely a gifted writer who has a great way of telling his stories. It could be his non usage of quotation marks or the shifting narration, but it kept me guessing and hooked. The way the story went up and down, with the sudden turns made me unable to put the book down. I am going to read the next two books in the trilogy and I hope they would be as good as this. I would certainly recommend this book to everyone who loves thriller mystery novels with politics and philosophical and sociological traits. Child 44 (first published in 2008) is a thriller novel by British writer Tom Rob Smith. This is the first novel in a trilogy featuring former MGB Agent Leo Demidov, who investigates a series of gruesome child murders in Joseph Stalin's Soviet Union. Having said their goodbyes they opened the front door. Standing before them was a frantic neighbor, a corridor full of smoke and flames as high as the ceiling. The man and his wife smiled with relief and thanked God: it was just the building on fire.

Soviet Union, 1956. Stalin is dead, and a regime once held together by fear is beginning to fracture, creating a lawless society where the police have become the criminals. A series of murders now has all of Moscow on edge, and no one–no matter how powerful or connected–seems safe. With his new and secretive homicide department, Leo Demidov investigates–only to find that he, his wife, and his two adopted daughters may be in grave danger. To save his family, Leo must make a desperate choice and face an impossible journey that may bring his redemption…or shatter their fragile future. In 1933, a child orphaned during the Ukrainian Holodomor runs away from his orphanage and is taken in by a Red Army unit and adopted by its kindly commander, who gives him the name Leo Demidov. In 1945, now a sergeant with the unit, Leo becomes an icon across the Soviet Union when he is photographed planting the Soviet flag atop the Reichstag during the Battle of Berlin. He is awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Angus Macqueen (12 April 2008). "Review: Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith". The Guardian. London . Retrieved 27 February 2012. Peter Guttridge (2 March 2008). "Interview: Tom Rob Smith". The Observer. London . Retrieved 27 February 2012.This book is gritty and violent but it was an awakening to a point in history that I will not forget. Este es el mejor thriller que jamás leí. Recuerdo haber estado tan maravillado en su tiempo. Cada capítulo un nuevo acontecimiento, cada capítulo una nueva sorpresa alucinante. Una terriblemente sofocante atmósfera de opresión, desesperanza en cada esquina, y aun así una encubierta lucha sin final contra lo imposible. Las cosas saliéndose tanto de control que pensás que no existe forma alguna de escapar de ellas, y sin embargo había. Las dictaduras sacan lo peor de la gente, y lo mejor en aquellos que tratan de combatirla. Tan arrolladoramente atrapante, sin poder dejar de leer. Leo y Raisa tan simples y complejos personajes a varios niveles. La temática fue brutal, los eventos atroces, y aun así había siempre una diminuta luz de esperanza para seguir adelante. Pocas veces me sentí tan entregado en alentar para que ganen. Tan cautivadora y hermosamente trágica. Este es uno de esos libros que siempre desearía poder releer como la primera vez, y que nunca me atrevo porque temo hasta el alma que no llegue a gustarme tanto en una segunda ocasión. Para mí esto fue una impecable obra maestra. Extremadamente Recomendable. You will find yourself fighting for this. For that person who showed you love. Some might do a new set of wrongs but this time for greater good. They say that the means do not justify the end, but I think a humane end could save you. But it is also a game of survival for the sake of your love ones. Contradicting, right? That's how i really feel. The books have given me so many things to take in. But you see, when we're done serving the principles we thought were right, we begin to fight for the only thing that matters and have made us feel that we matter...the things that made us feel loved and made us capable of doing right. It will become the piece that holds us together; the only thing that will make us whole again. Child 44' opens in a small Ukraine village in 1933. The entire Soviet Union, but mostly the Ukraine, under the dictatorial hand of the mass murderer Joseph Stalin (1878-1953), is starving, much as Stalin himself did as a child. El personaje de Leo Demidov es complejo y profundo y vivimos perfectamente su transición ideológica, igual que su mujer, Raisa.

Even so, you won't hear gratitude from me. My existence does not by any measure outweigh the brutalities of Soviet power. A large percentage of the Latvian population was deported, tortured and executed under the communist regime. My life cannot measure up to such suffering of the multitudes. In later years, I traveled several times to the Soviet Union to see for myself this world that had so often been described to me, yet nonetheless remained and remains nearly incomprehensible. The experience of my travels behind the Iron Curtain is a memory that will never leave me. These are the memories and impressions returned to me with the reading of Tom Rob Smith's debut novel, Child 44.Then when Leo is forced with an impossible choice he is demoted and sent to a distant out-breach. He and his wife Raisa must start a different kind of life.