This is an excellent novel that jumps back and forth in time, from Ukraine in the days when it was a Soviet Republic, to modern day Denmark.
The authors take us back to Ukraine in the 1930's, to the little known holocaust that happened there under Josef Stalin, often called the Holodomor, which can literally be translated to "death by hunger". There are estimates that more people were killed in this Holocaust than there were Jews killed in the Holocaust, yet it remains relatively obscure in history. But the story takes us there, specifically to a tiny village, where two sisters Olga and Oxana, grow up under the shadow of Stalin. The local teacher of the school, Comrade Semienova, has taken a liking of Oxana, who herself seems willing to buy into the notion that Stalin was building a better nation, and hope for the future. She believes that "Uncle Stalin would make the country so rich that even the Former Human Beings would acknowledge their mistakes and receive salt pork and butter on their bread every day." (p. 55) The Former Human Beings, by the way, are those who have fallen foul of the State, and are punished. They are the ones that are starving to death, often lying in the streets in plain view of everyone.
But when Oxana takes it a step further, and begins to report some locals who she sees as not living up to Stalin's vision, people begin to be taken away. After a while, the local villagers begin to hate her, and the rest of her family, including her sister Olga. The other children go from simply taunting to outright physically abusing them, beating them, and threatening them more and more seriously. Before long, the two sisters begin to take extraordinary lengths to protect themselves.
Most of the book takes part in Denmark, and it takes some time before the connection with the story about the olden days in Ukraine really becomes more obvious. Natasha Doroshenko is a woman from the Ukraine who made a typical mistake of youth: she fell head over heels in love with a man who dazzled her and magically provided her with the creature comforts of life, but she never questioned where all of these luxuries were coming from. By the time that she finds out, it is too late, and she has to make an escape to another country, Denmark, with her one and only daughter, Katerina. Eventually, she gets married to a Danish man who abuses her. But he crosses a line when she finds him sexually abusing Katerina, and she violently attacks him, sending her to jail, and her daughter Katrina to a refugee camp, under the watchful care of Nina Borg, a nurse with many of her own problems in life.
The novel continues to bounce back and forth between the story of the sisters growing up in Ukraine during the Holodomor, and more modern times, particularly with Nina watching over Katerina, and Natasha, who has made an escape from captivity by attacking a policeman, and then finding her way back to the camp where Katerina was staying. In the meantime, her ex-husband is found dead, and so it is widely assumed that Natasha herself is responsible. She is seen as a very dangerous threat, although this threat is greatly exaggerated, as it turns out. Still, her resourcefulness proves valuable, as she manages to elude the authorities at every turn, somehow.
Two police officers are brought in from Ukraine. But one of them, Colonel Savchuk, disappears of his own accord, adding some measure of mystery around the case. Søren, a Danish officer posted on the case who plays a prominent role in this book, befriends Babko, the other police officer brought in on the case from Ukraine.
Little by little, the cloud of mystery surrounding the case is pierced until, by the end, it lifts altogether, and everything ties into all else, and we see the connections where before was only mystery.
All in all, this is an excellent novel that is well-written and thought-provoking. It also is from two Scandinavian authors, and this region has been producing some incredible and entertaining writing as of late. I got this book (as well as another book that I recently read and reviewed) as a Christmas gift to my mom, and she absolutely loved both of them! Those Scandinavian authors are probably her favorite by this point, and they are quickly making their way up the ladder on my list, as well! Obviously, she recommended that I read these two books, and I was glad to have done so. I'm pretty sure that if you give them a shot, you'll love them, too! "Death of a Nightingale" is a wonderful book that proves informative on some levels, and very entertaining on all levels. Highly recommended!
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