''Snowdrops'' is a novel by A. D. Miller which was shortlisted for the 2011 Man Booker Prize. It was also shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger, the Los Angeles Times Book Awards, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Galaxy National Book Awards. It was the first novel to be nominated for both the Booker and the Gold Dagger. It was translated into 25 languages.

Plot

The novel is set in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

in the early 2000s and is written in the form of a

first-person narrative A first-person narrative is a mode of storytelling in which a storyteller recounts events from their own point of view using the first person It may be narrated by a first-person protagonist (or other focal character), first-person re-teller, ...

by the protagonist, Nick Platt, a British lawyer based in Russia. Nick meets two young women, Masha, with whom he becomes romantically involved, and Katya. The liaison sees him drawn into the underworld of Russia. Miller has described Snowdrops as a "moral thriller", because the reader knows that something bad is going to happen, but is not exactly sure what or how.

Reception

The book received generally positive reviews, with ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' writing: "Snowdrops is...a powerful warning of the dangers of staring at something so long that you stop noticing what you're seeing". The ''Financial Times'' described it as a "superlative portrait of a country in which everything has its price", which "displays a worldly confidence reminiscent of Robert Harris at his best". The ''Sunday Telegraph'' called it "disturbing and dazzling". The novel was selected as a 'book of the year' for 2011 in the ''Financial Times,'' the ''Observer'' and the ''Spectator,'' among other publications.

References

2011 British novels British thriller novels Novels set in Moscow Novels set in the 2000s Atlantic Books books {{2010s-thriller-novel-stub