This is a coming of age thriller set in a post nuclear Russia. A young gifted girl comes to realised that the government that raised her is evil, and the tyrant must be defeated. She joins up with her parents, revolutionary leaders both, and they defeat the tyrant. (A spoiler? Come on – the outcome was never reasonably in doubt.)

To add a little intellectual spice, the tyranny is based on Plato's Republic, and quotes litter the novel. If anyone's ever read Plato, and wondered what a mediocre novelist with no grasp of political reality could do if she transposed this two thousand year old theoretical idea into a badly imagined Russia populated entirely by walking cliches, this is the book to read. Anyone else can leave it safely on the shelves. One star, and that's being generous. ( )