The Red Scarf has a delightful premise: two women meet and fall into friendship in a Russian labour camp, suffering side-by-side in true solidarity under some of the harshest conditions ever imposed by human beings on human beings. Anna and Sofia share stories back and forth to help them survive, but slowly, the hard work, the harsh winter, and the lack of food is wearing them down. Sofia realizes Anna won't survive another winter. She escapes and begins on a wild adventure to find Anna's one true love Vasily - and his mother's jewelry - in order to persuade him to help her save Anna from another winter in such harsh conditions.

And then she finds Vasily and falls in love with him herself.

The books started off wonderfully. I loved the depiction of the friendship between the two women, the sacrifice and love they shared. I loved Anna and Sofia's stories, their journey through childhood as Russia fell apart around them and the cruel reality they were living through. I even loved the story of Sofia's escape and the story of the village of Tivil. I thought things would get really interesting as she met and fell in love with Anna's Vasily.

But, it started to drag, too many words crammed into not enough story, inflating the page count but not pushing the reader though them. I had no complaint with the writing itself and, in fact, the words were strung together quite well, I thought - not masterfully, but well. There was just too much of it.

And then, everything fell apart because everything ended up too neat. I know that sounds contradictory, but in literature, it's absolutely not. There could have been so much complication and human confusion as the characters faced hard, unfair situations. Literature is not made beautiful by bad things happening and then, suddenly, conveniently unhappening. Literature is made beautiful by bad things happening and characters reacting in ways that are so perfect, or imperfect, or cruel, or sacrificial, or true.

This book will add nothing to your life. There are so many other books to read. Don't bother with this one.

(This review also appeared on This Dusty House on March 8, 2013.) ( )

Another long-term TBR.

Taking place in Stalin's Russia, the book is centred round a bond between two women, a bond forged in a gulag in Siberia.

Anna and Sofia are unlikely friends, Anna comes from a privileged background, but in the new Russia she is now an enemy of the people and is sent to a gulag in Siberia. There she meets Sofia, a real survivor who tries to keep Anna safe in such harsh conditions. It's Anna's stories of her past, especially those of her childhood love, Vasily, which give both women hope. Sofia realises that Anna won't last out her sentence, so escapes to get help, no mean feat as you can imagine.

The second part of the book is Sofia's search for Vasily, a search which takes her to a town closely watched by Stalin's regime. She is taken in by a gypsy, a man who uses his power to try to keep his town safe from the regime. Sofia must keep her head, while looking for a way to get back to Anna, with Stalin's lackeys on every corner.

Do not read this expecting a historical treatise on Stalin's gulags, rather this book focuses on a bond between two women which is stretched to breaking point under great hardship. I wondered how the plot would stretch to 500 pages, but Furnivall throws in family drama, the hard life in the USSR of the '30s and a bit of magic. Entertaining enough to help break up the gloom of my spring term report writing. ( )

This tale about two friends, Sofia and Anna, imprisoned in a Soviet labor camp turned out much more interesting than I originally thought. While I had enjoyed other books by the author, I was reluctant to read this work because the premise seemed a bit dull. As it turned out, Sofia's escape from an labor camp in Siberia and her efforts to track down Anna's old friend to save her friend from certain death made this novel fast-paced and compelling. The author also provides enough twists and revelations about the central characters to keep the plot interesting. ( )

Enjoyable to read, but story is a bit of a stretch. ( )

Unfortunately I was unable to finish this book – which is not something that happens to me very often. I hadn't heard of Under a Blood Red Sky until I saw it in the library and I thought I'd give it a try as I love historical fiction set in Russia.

However, right from the beginning of the book I felt we were being asked to accept things that weren't plausible. The whole plot was just too far-fetched for me. The other (bigger) problem I had with this book was that I couldn't con...more Unfortunately I was unable to finish this book – which is not something that happens to me very often. I hadn't heard of Under a Blood Red Sky until I saw it in the library and I thought I'd give it a try as I love historical fiction set in Russia.

However, right from the beginning of the book I felt we were being asked to accept things that weren't plausible. The whole plot was just too far-fetched for me. The other (bigger) problem I had with this book was that I couldn't connect with any of the characters. Although they were constantly putting their lives at risk and facing unimaginable horrors under Stalin's communist regime, I found I didn't really care what happened to them. Sofia was one of those model heroines – beautiful, brave, intelligent and perfect. Everybody seemed to be captivated by her and I couldn't really understand why. She just didn't feel like a real person to me. Of course, there were some situations that even Sofia couldn't deal with – that's where the gypsy Rafik came in, using mesmerism and mind-control to overcome obstacles. I thought the whole magical aspect of the book seemed a bit out of place.

I tried to keep reading, thinking the book might get better but when I found I was almost halfway through and still wasn't enjoying it, I decided not to waste any more time on it and put it down with a sigh of relief. I'm glad I had borrowed this book from the library instead of spending money on it – at least I didn't lose anything apart from a couple of days when I could have been reading something else. ( )