num_pages: 375
description: From the author of The Watchmaker of Filigree Street and The Kingdoms an epic Cold War novel set in a mysterious town in Soviet Russia.In 1963 in a Siberian gulag former nuclear specialist Valery Kolkhanov has mastered what it takes to survive: the right connections to the guards for access to food and cigarettes the right pair of warm boots to avoid frostbite and the right attitude toward the small pleasures of life so he wont go insane. But on one ordinary day all that changes: Valerys university mentor steps in and sweeps Valery from the frozen prison camp to a mysterious unnamed town that houses a set of nuclear reactors and is surrounded by a forest so damaged it looks like the trees have rusted from within.In City 40 Valery is Dr. Kolkhanov once more and hes expected to serve out his prison term studying the effect of radiation on local animals. But as Valery begins his work he is struck by the questions his research raises: why is there so much radiation in this area? What exactly is being hidden from the thousands who live in the town? And if he keeps looking for answers will he live to serve out his sentence?Based on real events in a surreal Soviet city and told with bestselling author Natasha Pulleys inimitable style The Half Life of Valery K is a sweeping new adventure for readers of Stuart Turton and Sarah Gailey.
language: English
title: The Half Life of Valery K
publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing