The Secrets We Kept
This double-edged thriller about the publication of Boris Pasternak’s Dr Zhivago, set in a world torn apart by the Iron Curtain, is a moving story about forbidden love and betrayal on either side of the concrete divide.
When Irina takes a job in the typing pool of a Washington government agency, she does not stay long. Of Russian provenance and fluent in the language, she is soon given the precarious task of distributing books banned in the Soviet Union to Russian readers. Her trainer is Sally, a woman of many faces, to whom she feels deeply attracted. Although Sally might return her feelings, their love is betrayed, and their future hangs in the balance. Is Sally able to exert her revenge on the informer? Her retribution might come at a high price for her and Irina.
In the Soviet Union, Olga pays an infinitely more horrific price for her devotion to Boris Pasternak. As he writes Dr Zhivago, she is deported to one of Stalin’s infamous prison camps, where she is fed starvation portions and forced to perform hard labor. Although Olga nearly dies, she forgives Boris upon her return. Moving into a house next to his, she seeks to protect him from the tyranny of the Russian state. But when, in an unguarded moment, Boris hands his manuscript of Dr Zhivago to an Italian publisher, a sequence of events is set into motion, which threatens to destroy them both.
Life is short, but art endures. A tribute to a great literary work, the tragic circumstances of its creation, and the reasons behind its rise to fame, The Secrets We Kept is an extremely well-wrought tale. Beautifully written, the contrast between 1960s America and ‘Mother Russia’ is impressively portrayed. Tracking the various viewpoints—including that of the typing pool—might prove a challenge, but the diversity of perspectives adds to the richness of the reading experience. Highly recommended.
