Safe Return Doubtful

translated from the Russian (Belarus) by Ilona Yazhbin Chavasse

This little Belarussian gem, or perhaps black opal is more appropriate, has taken more than thirty years to reach English translation, though on its relase in 1991 won several awards. A cause for celebration most certainly.

It is a tale told by a madman driven to violence by jealousy. Skorobogatov’s noir opens as it means to carry on..

They say he murdered women using a short-bladed knife with a crooked bone handle to rip open their bellies..

These words concern one Sergeant Bertrand, who, “liked to wiggle his toes in there, but he didn’t like it at all when the women screamed”.
Bertrand is the best friend of Nikolai, a veteran of the Russian army, who will quite quickly lose his sanity in a most alarming way, perhaps no surpise when in the company of a ‘friend’ such as Bertrand.

Whether his actions are driven by jealous rage at his wife’s extramartial affair, or PTSD from his days at war, the study of his tormented mind is unnerving. As the novel proceeds, Nikolai’s mind deteriorates, and soon he is unable to distinguish dreams from reality, or rather night-terrors from the terror of his days.

In the prose as well as in the dialogue Skorobogatov writes with a gripping distortion to his descriptions and dark wit which makes the whole piece into something that bit special.

For all those dark souls (like me) that revel in such a dominion as Skorobogatov creates, this is not to be missed.

My GoodReads score 5 / 5