Start Reading The Raven's Children Scripted By Yulia Yakovleva Accessible From Bound Copy

really enjoyed this story of a young boy living in Leningrad under Stalin in thes, The entire novel is told from the innocent and naive perspective ofyear old Shura who strongly believes in being a good Soviet citizen.
After his family mysteriously vanish he sets out with his sister to find them, Heartbreakingly convinced there has been a mistake that they can easily rectify, Magical realism begins about/of the way through which I found very odd and unexpected, I didn't really understand the talking birds but the other analogies which came later were very fitting, Whilst at times it was a little on the nose, it became like a horror story as little Shura became more and more aware of the terrifying world around him.
See my review here:

sitelink wordpress. com/ I wasnt too sure about this at first, Its begins quite jumpy and lacks flow, but half way through the plot really takes over and the realisation of what happened to the children of those arrested during The Terror takes over.
Its a clever way of addressing such a horrific event in a way that will engage and inform children of this tragic period in history.
Russia inis a place of great terror, Joseph Stalin is in charge, His Secret Police are everywhere, searching for anyone who might be his enemy, People have no idea who they can trust,

Sevenyearold Shura doesn't know about any of this, He's happy in his little home in Leningrad going to school in the mornings, playing with his best friend in the afternoon, fighting with his big sister, spending time with his Mama, Papa and baby brother Bobka.


Until one day everything changes,

Mama and Papa and Bobka disappear without a trace, The whispers of their neighbours are that Mama and Papa were spies, enemies of Stalin and so they have now been taken by something mysterious called The Raven.


Desperate to reunite his family, Shura decides to hunt down The Raven, finding help in the most unexpected places but facing more danger than he has ever known.
. . It looks like there's no entry here for the original Russianlanguage version, Дети ворона, so I'll use this one, This was intense! The story starts out in the ordinary worldordinary forUSSR, where Shurka lives an ordinary life with his family and friend.
The one truly scary thing in his world are spiesespecially when he thinks he may have met one who bought him some ice cream and spends a night sure he's going to be dead by morning of poison.


But that imaginary fear pales next to the reality of first his father disappearing, then waking up to find his mother and little brother gone too, taken by a mysterious figure called The Black Raven, as far as Shurka knows.
At this point Shurka's world gets positively surreal, as only a Stalinist nightmare can be, as he joins the crowds of people waiting outside the grey house of the Black Raven, hoping he'll release their innocent family members.
Russia was in a very dark period from the mid to lates under the leadership of Stalin.
Much akin to what Orwell described in, this period in Russia is filled with fear, general distrust, paranoia, and dread.
A glimpse behind the curtain reveals that all this simply reflects Stalins own state of mind at that time as a result of the murder of his close ally and senior party member Sergey Kirov in late.
Obviously affected and shaken by the incident, hed taken to excessively improving his personal security and avoided going out in public as much as possible.
He also went on to form NKVD troika which eventually became the KGB that were instrumental in the death and assassination of many who were deemed spies and enemies of the state, thus leading to that period of time in Russian history that has come to be known as The Great Terror.
The Ravens Children is set upon this period in time, Whats interesting though, is that the book seems to be targeted at children,

The story starts off with the antics of young boys, playing near the railroads full of innocence and mischief which should make anyone nostalgic enough.
Needless to say, things quickly escalate and pretty soon veers into the reality of the time where everyone is fearful of spies or at least of being perceived as spies.
As with Guillermo del Toros Pans Labyrinth, The Ravens Children alternates between whats real and whats not so real in the midst ofyearold Shura's harsh life.
Though it doesnt become clearly evident when it actually happens, the story crosses a point in where reality ceases or intermingles with the fantasy and it does take the reader by surprise as up until that point, there was no indication that this was the route it was going to go.
The initial pages are an interesting study of the working class Russia in the lates, This genre switch may come across as a strength in the narrative or a weakness, depending on how you look at it but at parts, it does seem to undermine the initial emotional investment with the main characters.
Still, it was interesting to discover an intriguing world within a world sometimes referred to as “the other side” or “NotLeningrad” where charming characters both people and animals makes appearances.


Heavy symbolism and metaphors present itself e, g. ears growing out of walls but the story does not dwell into such literary devices too much instead of just providing a passing reference to it.
Similar imageries presented towards the last act continues to be abstract as well and it will be interesting to understand how children would react to this book, but there are definitely much for an adult to think and deliberate about.
As with all stories with a touch of magical realism, the ending seems ambiguous and a little openended and this may just be because there

are simply no good ways to bring such tales to a satisfying end.
It was definitely an interesting read, and perhaps much has been lost in translation but a Murakami fan would probably enjoy this more.
I read an uncorrected, bound proof copy of this novel,

Generally speaking, I am fascinated by all things Russian and as I had never read or even heard of a children's book set in Russia, nor had I ever read something written by a contemporary Russian author, this book captured my interest instantly.
I just had to read it,

But oh boy where do I start with reviewing this book It's really hard to make sense of at times, but to reveal why that is, would be to spoil much of the book.


Firstly, it wasn't at all what I had expected, I thought I was getting a "sitelinkThe Boy in the Striped Pajamas, but make it Stalinist," kind of deal, but I was wrong about that granted, I haven't read The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, nor do I intend to, but I'm still pretty sure I was wrong.


Shura, a harmlessly disobedient seven yearold, lives happily in Leningrad with his Mama and Papa and his siblings, older sister Tanya and younger brother Bobka.
That is, until, he disobeys his parents a final time by going to see the parade celebrating Ivan Papanin and his team of polar explorers, who returned home afterdays adrift in the arctic circle.
Shura encounters a strange man, who makes odd remarks about the tattered coats of the citizens attending the parade, and asks if Papanin really wanted to be rescued, or if "he got himself stuck there on purpose.
" It is not until after the man leaves and Shura encounters Tanya that he realises, with alarm, that the man might have been a spy.


It's following this alarming encounter that Papa is suddenly taken away "on a business trip" overnight and Mama begins acting strangely, tearing documents and photographs into small pieces before burning them to ashes.
Just one more night passes and Mama and Bobka disappear too, Despite whispers from their neighbours that Mama and Papa were taken away by the Black Raven, Tanya and Shura are convinced that Mama has found the new job she was talking about getting and has already taken Bobka to nursery.
Furthermore, when their elderly neighbour knocks on the door to hand them a purse full of money and tells them that their mother left instructions for them to go to their Aunt Vera's, they disregard this as the old lady getting confused and instead agree that their mother left them the money so they could go out for the day and enjoy themselves.


It is only when Tanya convinces Shura to ask a smiling policeman about the Black Raven who took his Papa that they realise something is truly wrong, as the smile disappears from the man's face and he begins to pursue them.
Things take a surreal turn as the children realises that not only can the birds of Leningrad understand them, but that they can also respond and they all claim to know where the Black Raven is.


As the book progresses, the reader goes tumbling further into this bizarre and terrifying world of the Stalinist regime, where birds can talk, the walls have ears, and citizens are
hidden in plain sight.
Reality and illusion, fact and fantasy all blend into one, as Shura searches desperately for his Mama, Papa and Bobka, and becomes more entangled in the dark underbelly of the USSR's political regime.
He frantically tries to make sense of the nonsensical, greycoloured world he's now living in, alone, confused, and invisible.


Shura is bold and determined, and totally endearing as a protagonist and the plotline is enthralling and often quite nervewracking I could barely put the book down overnight.
My only complaint is that the book yields no explanations, but I guess that's really the point of a book set in the Great Purge no answers were given.
The whole book is difficult to make sense of, there is no line between fact and fiction

The Raven's Children is dark and bewildering and I certainly recommend it.
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