Snowdrops

Snowdrops do not have the same poetic, floral meaning in modern Russia - as A D Miller's evocating and chilling tale reveals very quickly. In contemporary Russian argot, a snowdrop is a corpse discovered once the winter's snow has melted. It's a gruesome image, and one that runs through the heart of this intense literary thriller.

Over the course of one freezing Moscow winter, a young Englishman is immediately seduced by opportunities that open all around him. This is no longer a land of Glasnost and Perestroika, but a confusing playground of hedonism and desperation, corruption and kindness, magical dachas and debauched nightclubs. As the winter progresses and as the thaws begin, the narrator cannot help but fall into a web of lies, deceit and corruption: his moral compass spun to degrees that he could never, ever imagine.

Snowdrops is a taut, lean, icily involving novel that is as sharp as an arctic blast. Full of palpable danger, moral ambiguity and with a tense, suspense plot, this is a debut novel of rare power and conviction.