"Brilliantly imagined in its harrowing account of the Chernobyl
disaster and exhilarating in its sweep, All That Is Solid Melts into
Air is a debut to rattle all the windows and open up the ventricles of
the heart. . . . The book is daring, exhilarating, generous and
beautifully written." -- Colum McCann
A brilliant and gripping novel set against the tragedy of Chernobyl
and the way in which the lives of its survivors were forever changed in
its wake. Part historical epic, part love story, it recalls The
English Patient in its mix of emotional intimacy and sweeping
landscape.
Russia, 1986. On a run-down apartment block in Moscow, a nine-year-old
prodigy plays his piano silently for fear of disturbing the neighbors.
In a factory on the outskirts of the city, his aunt makes car parts,
hiding her dissident past. In a nearby hospital, a surgeon immerses
himself in his work, avoiding his failed marriage.
And in a village in Belarus, a teenage boy wakes to a sky of the deepest
crimson. Outside, the ears of his neighbor's cattle are dripping blood.
Ten miles away, at the Chernobyl Power Plant, something unimaginable has
happened. Now their lives will change forever.
An end-of-empire novel charting the collapse of the Soviet Union, All
That Is Solid Melts into Air is a riveting and epic love story by a
major new talent.
