Montefiore's skill with imagery is such that he immerses the reader in an utterly ethereal landscape, only to snap them into horror as men emerge from rippling sunflowers with 'swords streaked with blood and grass,' and that soft horizon is suddenly filled 'squadrons of tanks like steel cockroaches.' Montefiore can effortlessly meld beauty with battle. Vivid and impeccably researched.
The Time Literary Supplement
Mythic and murderous violence in Russia. . . there are power-drunk Nazis and Soviet traitors, including a particularly memorable villain. Written with brio & deep knowledge of its fascinating subject matter. Red Sky at Noonis a deeply satisfying page turner. There are atrocities on all sides and a smidgen of love as Benya falls for a brave Italian nurse. A subplot follows the ill-starred affair between Stalin's daughter and a Jewish writer. But Benya's struggle to keep his humanity is the memorable spine of the book”
The Times "Best of the Month" (London)
Red Sky at Noon is an epic adventure story set against the backdrop of the most awful war in human history. The master historian shape-shifts into the brilliant novelist. Ridiculously good.”
For the sheer pleasure of being swept away in an epic tale of love and war by a master storyteller, Red Sky At Noon by Simon Sebag Montefiore had me enthralled from beginning to end. This is the final part of his Moscow trilogy – a series of compelling historical novels in the great tradition of Scott, Thackeray and Tolstoy.”
It's Lonesome Dove meets Stalingrad. A band of outlaws riding and fighting for their lives on sweeping plains—but these bandits are not battling tribes in the Wild West, they are on the grasslands of south Russia at war with Nazi Germany and its ally, the Italians. Our hero is not a Texas Ranger but a Jewish writer named Benya Golden. Montefiore has brought his understand of Russian history to life here with great gusto traversing Gulags, battlefields and Kremlin but Golden is a lover not a fighter...”
I devoured Red Sky at Noon. A heart-stopping, heartbreaking, technicolor epic. A grand homage to the Russian masters Babel & Grossman, echoes of Hemingway & Dostoevsky, and a propulsive delight that is entirely Montefiore's own. Gripping storytelling allied with intimate, unsqueamish knowledge of Russian history—a special combination.”
Historian, biographer, and novelist Montefiore has garnered critical acclaim and commercial success in each discipline, and his latest demonstrates his deftness in crafting a deeply engaging story that is only enriched by his skills as a historian and biographer. Offering historical accuracy, a fine empathy for his characters, and a story that illuminates the operatic tragedy of Stalin’s rule, Red Sky at Noon is brilliant on multiple levels.”
In this third volume of The Moscow Trilogy, the fate of combatants and civilians is often harsh. With his feel for vivid and immediate drama and impressive research, the author evokes the extreme turbulence and violence impacting on individuals. Writing with passion,
Amidst the killing and the chaos, a group of prisoners are offered a chance of redemption on a secret mission behind enemy lines on horseback. Montefiore has a keen sense of place and an eye of unexpected details. Switching between the frontline on the Russian steppes and
A gripping novel. Montefiore is brilliant at depicting brooding menace. As the penal battalions are given increasingly risky missions, it is Benya's journey on horseback that we follow behind enemy lines in the grasslands of southern Russia. An epic tale. The language is arresting. It's all beautifully done: a western on the eastern front.
The gripping final installment of The Moscow
The worthy conclusion to [the Moscow Trilogy]. The vivid interplay between a war story and a love story, and between the Kremlin and the frontline, grants the novel its momentum. Like so much historical fiction, Red Sky at Noon keeps readers turning pages not to learn the end but to better understand the individuals who brought about this end. A gripping adventure, a compelling history, and a work that adds humanity to stories we thought we already knew.”
A wonderful novel. Highly atmospheric. A truly absorbing read.Red Sky at Noon is like Cormac McCarthy—with Nazis and Cossacks. ”
★ 10/30/2017
"Montefiore's encyclopedic knowledge of Russian history gives his stories a gripping vibrancy. There's a twist to the end of the story that is by turns satisfying and heartbreaking. In the end, love does win out."
"An important and gripping description of conditions early in World War II in Russia, particularly the extensive use of horse cavalry, of which—I suspect—most of us have been unaware."
"For the sheer pleasure of being swept away in an epic tale of love and war by a master storyteller, Red Sky At Noon by Simon Sebag Montefiore had me enthralled from beginning to end. This is the final part of his Moscow trilogy – a series of compelling historical novels in the great tradition of Scott, Thackeray and Tolstoy."
a Best Book of the Year Sunday Herald (UK)
"Historian, biographer, and novelist Montefiore has garnered critical acclaim and commercial success in each discipline, and his latest demonstrates his deftness in crafting a deeply engaging story that is only enriched by his skills as a historian and biographer. Offering historical accuracy, a fine empathy for his characters, and a story that illuminates the operatic tragedy of Stalin’s rule, Red Sky at Noon is brilliant on multiple levels."
"Historian, biographer, and novelist Montefiore has garnered critical acclaim and commercial success in each discipline, and his latest demonstrates his deftness in crafting a deeply engaging story that is only enriched by his skills as a historian and biographer. Offering historical accuracy, a fine empathy for his characters, and a story that illuminates the operatic tragedy of Stalin’s rule, Red Sky at Noon is brilliant on multiple levels."
Riveting, evocative, affecting and tragic. Montefiore is a masterful writer and a marvelous storyteller, and the way he peels back the layers propels the reader onward, eager to learn the key to the mystery.
The Seattle Times (Praise for Simon Sebag Montefiore)
Montefiore is a natural storyteller who brings his encyclopedic knowledge of Russian history to life in language that glitters. Montefiore shows that the historian seeking the truth must call upon creativity as much as upon meticulous research. Here’s hoping we get more spellbinding historical fiction from him.
The Washington Post (Praise for Simon Sebag Montefiore)
Intensely moving, with an unforgettable climax that will touch the hardest heart.
A dispatch from the days of blood and thunder. Benya's struggle to keep his humanity is the memorable spine of the book.
Written with brio and deep knowledge of the fascinating subject matter. Deeply satisfying.
The Times "Book of the Month" (London)
Riveting, evocative, affecting and tragic. Montefiore is a masterful writer and a marvelous storyteller, and the way he peels back the layers propels the reader onward, eager to learn the key to the mystery.
Montefiore is a natural storyteller who brings his encyclopedic knowledge of Russian history to life in language that glitters. Montefiore shows that the historian seeking the truth must call upon creativity as much as upon meticulous research. Here’s hoping we get more spellbinding historical fiction from him.
10/15/2017
This audiobook is an example of a book that is better to experience as a listener than as a reader. The final novel in Montefiore’s Moscow Trilogy takes the listener into the psyche of Benya Golden, a Jewish Communist sentenced to a gulag in 1942 during the final period of Hitler’s Russian invasion. Narrator Simon Bubb masterfully conveys the physical and psychological trauma Golden experiences, allowing listeners to empathize with the prisoner’s deepest fears and emotions. As the story evolves, so does Bubb’s performance, his tone and delivery capturing Golden and the darkness of life under Stalin’s brutal regime. D.J.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
2017-09-28
