It is always difficult to create a work of fiction around real events. Notable examples include 'The Day of the Jackal', where we know that Jackal can't possibly achieve his goal, but the tale is so gripping that becomes totally unimportant. I started reading this on a tiny plane hopping between an archipelago in the Taiwan strait and Taiwan proper, so the opening could not have been better.
McGuinness here is describing the last days of the Ceaucescu regime in Romania as 1989 comes to a close. Anyone with a passing knowledge of recent history knows the bare bones of what happened there and this novel fleshes out events through a variety of characters. Romania in the late 80's was not a very nice place for many reasons and this work gets to the heart of the problems there.
Our narrator, and perhaps the least successful of these characters, is a young Englishman who has ended up teaching English in Bucharest by mistake. The reason that I say least successful is that the traits, tropes and abilities of this character who must be at best in his early twenties are quite remarkable. He has insight into language and culture alongside an uncanny ability to seduce Romanian women from very different backgrounds.
There are a few clanging errors that set me off course a little (truckers on the hard shoulder of the U-Bahn?), but overall it was a fascinating romp through a time I remember vividly from the BBC reports. The pacing was excellent, but ultimately the plot (such as it was) petered out by the end, overtaken by events.
The events of winter 1989 in Romania are murky to say the least and this book describes one of the strangest interluded - the mystery of the 'broken' leg. Some of the characters felt more convincing than others, but overall it was that curious beast, a literary novel with a certain Ruritanian flair.
Highly recommended - I know that I have enjoyed a book when I find myself trying to visualise and cast the film or BBC miniseries as I read.
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