Short review of the 2011 Booker Shortlisted novel, Snowdrops, by A D Miller

A.D. Miller was formerly the Moscow correspondent of The Economist. He has lived in Russia. I haven’t even visited so I don’t feel entirely qualified to comment on this book and I probably wouldn’t have picked it up if it had not been shortlisted for the 2011 Booker prize. Initially, I couldn’t get past disliking the narrator, Nicholas Platt, a somewhat sleazy British lawyer working in Moscow who naively becomes involved with the amoral Masha and her somewhat suspicious sister, Katya. The two women are stereotypes reminiscent of the Bond movies who successfully lure Platt into their dark scheme. Then, somewhere around chapter 13, Snowdrops switches into an exciting read as the plot thickens, the pace quickens, and for the next couple of chapters it becomes a page turner. From chapter 14 on, it’s a better book even though the Bond movie feel persists throughout. There is plenty of action but the characters lack depth and, with the possible exception of the elderly Tatiana Vladimirovna, are neither sympathetic nor likeable. I’m somewhat surprised that Snowdrops made it on to the Booker shortlist. It’s certainly readable but I think the first chapters, in particular, would have benefited from a bit more polishing before publication.