“I wanted them to take a good hard look at a system that had allowed the State to kill off any writer, any intellectual—hell, even any meteorologist—they disagreed with.”Ultimately this is the story of being silenced banned if you will for speaking one's mind with regards to the times during the Cold War.
The stage is set as Boris Pasternak author of Dr. Zhivago and mistress Olga struggle to get the book published behind the Iron Curtain.
The chapters embrace a multitude of characters, aspirations, and secrets from the CIA world to the life of average citizens trying to not be silenced by fear and intimidation.
Ultimately the 5 yr sentence imposed to a re education camp for having Anti Soviet conversations would not deter the end result.
The typist pool is where a young woman is pulled out and trained for espionage with this young man whom she becomes engaged only to later be enticed and entranced by a female spy with some anti LGBTQ prejudices that hampered further career and personal efforts in the process.
The author's personal experience shadows some of these characters as she struggled to make a name for herself being told Russia was no longer a matter of interest to readers.
Thankfully Prescott didn't take rejection easily as this just sold for 2 million to Knopf with plans for movie being made.
In the end I leave you to ponder this quote: They had their satellites, but we had their books. Back then, we believed books could be weapons - that literature could change the course of history.
Dream Big!
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