Product Description

When historian Fluke Kelso learns of the existence of a secret notebook belonging to Josef Stalin he is determined to track it down, whatever the consequences. From the violent political intrigue and decadence of modern Moscow he heads north - to the vast forests surrounding the White Sea port of Archangel, and a terrifying encounter with Russia's unburied past.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11473 in Books
• Published on: 1999-10-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 432 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Before political journalist Robert Harris turned to fiction and resurrected Hitler for his best selling novel Fatherland, he also wrote a hugely entertaining account of the farce surrounding the publication of the hoax Hitler diaries. Archangel, with the obvious exception of substituting Hitler for that other 20th-century ogre Josef Stalin, can be seen as something of a combination of these previous projects. The novel opens in present-day Russia where a louche Oxford academic, Christopher "Fluke" Kelso, is attending a conference on the newly available Stalin archives. Kelso quickly becomes embroiled in a quest for some of Uncle Joe's still secret papers--and also a quest to make his own academic reputation--but soon uncovers more than he bargains for. The ghosts of the old authoritarian past exert a peculiar and all too powerful tug on Yeltsin's fragile capitalist democracy and as Kelso is drawn ever nearer to the secret that lies in the remote White Sea port of Archangel so the tragedies of the past become hideously more plausible in the present. Harris is historically sound, politically astute and his acute insight into the apparatus of state repression and minds of despots is unnerving. But most of all he tells a terrific yarn and Archangel sees him on top form. This is his best yet.--Nick Wroe

Review
Although Robert Harris produced several fine books after the groundbreaking Fatherland, this masterful thriller was the first to achieve the same kind of impact. The story of Fluke Kelso (a former historian attending a Moscow conference on the newly opened Soviet archives) who is thrown into a nightmare search for long-lost papers from Stalin's dacha on the night he had his fatal stroke is rich in the kind of fastidiously researched historical detail that Harris is famous for, while never losing the impressive thriller momentum that makes this such a powerful book. As Kelso gets nearer to the dark heart of the new Russia, the reader is propelled into a tight spiral of mounting tension. (Kirkus UK)

Top-flight thriller, something of a variation on le Carre's The Russia House, as an American historian tracks down a MacGuffin of far greater value than the Maltese falcon. Fluke Kelso, having published two books about the fall of the Soviet empire, finds himself invited to a symposium in Moscow that will supposedly focus on newly released archival material. Some think Kelso will reveal yet another bombshell. And that might be true, since he has secretly interviewed elderly Papu Rapava, bodyguard of KGB chief Lavrenty Beria, about the night that Stalin died. Rapava observed all as Beria took a key from Stalin's neck and stole from a safe an oilskin pouch holding the dictator's memoirs (an improvisation on the theme of Harris's first book, 1986's Selling Hitler, about the faking of the Hitler diaries). Later, the pouch was buried in Beria's backyard. The ever-avid Kelso goes ferreting through some recently declassified papers in the Lenin Library, then hunts up Vladimir Mamantov, a Stalinist fanatic he'd interviewed years ago for his big book about the Soviet collapse, a book sneered at by Mamantov because it painted Stalin black. Mamantov concedes that in Western terms the man was a monster, but avers that by Soviet standards he lifted the USSR from the tractor to the atomic bomb. And Mamantov opines to Kelso that Stalinism will return: some 20 million Russians still believe Stalin was the greatest figure of the century - a rather large bloc should some other charismatic figure rise anew to lead it once again. After Kelso makes a secret trip to Beria's house and discovers freshly turned earth, he falls in with an American TV reporter while being tracked by the RT Directorate's chief. Deaths ensue as the trail leads to the White Sea port of Archangel, where Kelso does indeed make a momentous discovery. No personal demons here to soothe, but Harris's (Enigma, 1995, etc.) knack for recreating historical events puts him in very select company. (Kirkus Reviews)

Synopsis
When historian Fluke Kelso learns of the existence of a secret notebook belonging to Josef Stalin he is determined to track it down, whatever the consequences. From the violent political intrigue and decadence of modern Moscow he heads north - to the vast forests surrounding the White Sea port of Archangel, and a terrifying encounter with Russia's unburied past.

Customer Reviews

A Story of Two Parts
Kelso is a maverick historian whose controversial opinions on Russia have made him famous across the globe, but also infamous in the academic world. On a trip to Russia he stumbles across a man who claims to have been present at the time of Stalin's death. This man also claims that Stalin had a notebook with him on the day that he died and that he knows the location of this item. With Stalin's notebook Kelso believes he could reinvent Stalinist history, unfortunately so do many other people. Kelso is used to dealing with fellow academics, but this case will take him into the wilds of Russia and put him up against some of the most powerful and dangerous people from Russia's present and its Soviet past.

`Archangel' is an interesting novel that seems to be split into two distinct stories. The first half is a pre De Vinci Code like adventure were likable hero Kelso sets out on a history investigation into the notebook. Personally I really enjoyed this part of the book as it reads like any historian's dream adventure. Unfortunately, the book takes a dip in the second half as it becomes a more traditional thriller. I felt it was a shame that it lost its intelligent stance towards the end. This book may fail to appeal to a wide audience as some will find the first half boring, whilst others will find the second half a little silly. However, I found it a good enough book to read and an interesting insight into Russia's history, both old and new.

3/6
one of the first books i read by Robert Harris, literally couldn't put it down.
I have recommended this to a lot of my friends and i recommend it to anyone looking for a good book

brilliant, haunting and chilling
Unlike the author's most recent title, The Ghost, which is a sad waste of his talents, this book is both brilliant and plausible. And though it was written some years ago, to read it today in the context of Putin's Russia, where Stalin is being rehabilitated as a great leader, is to admire the author even more. As a thriller, the book stacks up brilliantly; as a portrayal of Russia, it's bang on the money, and also for its portrayal of the complex way in which people in Russia, and the former Russian Empire, regard Stalin. Highly, highly recommended.