The Half Life of Valery K is a book I came across shortly after a friend mentioned a woman, a scientist, who discovered radioactive contamination revealing a secret nuclear contamination. She didn’t mention the woman’s name, so when I saw this book’s title, I thought it might be about her. It’s not. Valery is a man.

Valery Kolkhanov was a political prisoner in a Siberian labor camp whose early action at the camp gave him much-needed privileges that kept him alive, barely. Suddenly, he is shipped elsewhere without any explanation. However, even before his arrival, he deduced there had been a nuclear event of some kind just based on the dying trees and vegetation. Perhaps he was going to be a test subject contaminated by radiation and observed while his organs melt.

Good news, though. He was requested by Elena Resovskaya, his former mentor, in order to assist her in her research, as a scientist, not a subject. She explains they are studying the effect of radiation on species to see if there are some adaptive species who resist radiation better than others and why that might be.

He also has a distrustful encounter with Konstantin Shenkov, the KGB security chief in charge of the facility, one that results in his arm getting broken by Shenkov who seems truly remorseful, if that is possible. Valery soon learns that his every word and deed is monitored as are those of everybody else. People learn what can and cannot be said and how to say what cannot be said by saying something else. If that sounds complicated, no one said living in a secret Soviet research facility at the height of the Cold War was easy.

Complicating the matter are things that Valery discovers that lead him to revise his thoughts about his mentor and about Shenkov, especially about Shenkov. They and the writer Pulley dance around the feelings they have as though Soviet spies are watching over her shoulder as she types. It’s extremely effective and a smart decision as a writer. It enhances that feeling of claustrophobia that people in that situation must have felt.

Having just read one of the best books of 2023 before this and considering I began The Half Life of Valery K under a mistaken assumption, it came through as another of the best books I have read this year. I loved how Valery slowly went from gratitude to appalled horror with Resovskaya and from fear to deep regard for Shenkov.

Valery is brilliant and regards himself as deeply pragmatic, but he doesn’t know himself as well as he thinks he does. He is an idealist and there is no place for an idealist in Brezhnev’s U.S.S.R. The triangle between Resovskaya, Valery, and Shenkov rises to a crisis and the resolution has a bit of a madcap implausibility to it, but then an entire secret city where there has been a secret nuclear contamination is implausible and it happened.

The Half Life of Valery K at Bloomsbury
Natasha Pulley

https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2023/12/30/the-half-life-of-valery-k... ( )

This is beautifully written, and I loved the characterization of Valery and Shenkov. The facts about radiation were just about graspable, even for me.

Highly recommended. ( )

Although based on the story of this little reported irradiated city in the former Soviet Union, Pulley delivers another fabulous character driven novel that gets better and better as you get into it. Through Valery’s difficult experiences and inner voice we get a vibrant picture of the fears, suspicions and bravery of scientists ( but others too) who cared for truth and basic humanity in that era. Despite the sometimes brutal reality of his story, Valery brings a wry humor to observations about the system and the people he encounters, so the book offers some glimpses of lightness and inspiration with its picture of mixed morality. ( )

Well written book but scary subject ( )

I was intrigued by the synopsis of The Half Life of Valery K. Having read and liked some of the authors previous work, I was eagerly anticipating another great release by her, but I can only say that the book was OK and not great.

The book opens as Valery K, a six year resident of the Soviet gulag, and an expert in radiation biology, finds himself transferred to City 40, the site of a concealed nuclear accident, and the site of research into radiation effects on various species. He slowly discovers not all is as it seems, and events spiral from there.

The protagonist, Valery K, was not an interesting character. For whatever reason, I cared less and less for him as I continued on in the book, especially as his past history started coming to light. The author’s portrait of him seemed inconsistent. At times, he’s quite the “nervous Nellie” who suffers from panic attacks, while at other times he’s determined and not at all anxious to undertake what he feels he needs to do. His counterpart, Shenkov, the head of the KGB at the facility, has an unconvincing change of heart towards Valery.

Overall, I struggled at times to finish the book, as I just found it hard to maintain interest. The ending was not at all convincing to me.

My thanks to Bloomsbury Publishing, and Netgalley, for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest opinion. ( )