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Archangel

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Archangel

By: Robert Harris
Narrated by: Anton Lesser
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About this listen

 Archangel tells the story of four days in the life of Fluke Kelso, a dissipated, middle-aged former Oxford historian who is in Moscow to attend a conference on newly opened Soviet archives.

One night Kelso is visited in his hotel room by an old NKVD officer, a former bodyguard of the secret police chief, Lavrentii Beria. The old man claims to have been at Stalin's dacha on the night Stalin had his fatal stroke, and to have helped Beria steal the dictator's private papers, among them a notebook. Kelso decides to use his last morning in Moscow to check out the old man's story.

But what starts as an idle enquiry in the Lenin Library soon turns into a murderous chase across night-time Moscow and up to northern Russia - to the vast forest near the White Sea resort of Archangel, where the final secret of Josef Stalin has been hidden for almost half a century. Archangel combines the imaginative sweep and dark suspense of Fatherland with the meticulous historical detail of Enigma.

The result is a classic adventure story of great intelligence in the tradition of Conrad, Greene and le Carre.

©2004 Robert Harris (P)2004 Random House Audiobooks Historical Suspense Thriller & Suspense Russia Stalin Soviet Union Fiction
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Anton Lesser draws you into a dark, but somehow implausible, political story. You get a sense of sweaty walls and grim political abuse throughout Soviet Russia that runs through to the modern day - with a twist of Western manipulation that echoes through to an ongoing Cold War - but it just feels so fantastical you start to listen in disbelief rather than intrigue. It is well executed by Anton Lesser and I love Robert Harris’ other works - just maybe Archangel was a leap too far.

Anton Lesser draws you into a dark story

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Just enough detail - well paced story - tensions encourage page turning. As usual Robert Harris makes me feel I was there.

Narrative

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What did you like most about Archangel?

It was an interesting story that is backed up by some historical facts.

What does Anton Lesser bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

He did a great job at making the story enjoyable with the way he delivered the book.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Probably not in one sitting but its a good listen.

Robert Harris, you can't go wrong.

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Anton Lesser is just brilliant. His performance transforms an ordinary thriller into something quite extraordinary - his character work is truly a lesson in acting for audiobooks, each character being completely believable - I was enthralled particularly by his interpretation of the seedy American journalist, so different from Lesser's usual tone, and completely brilliant.

I initially tried to listen to a more recent recording of the same book read by a different narrator, but there was no contest: Lesser wins hands down. Great quality throughout technically and artistically.

Wonderful story telling from a great narrator.

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This is without doubt one of my favourite audiobooks of all time. Excellent story and performance.

Top notch

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