Despite the Falling Snow
Read Despite the Falling Snow Online
Authors: Shamim Sarif
Tags: #Fiction, #Thrillers, #Espionage, #Literary
Also by Shamim Sarif
BOOKS
I Can’t Think Straight
The World Unseen
Despite the Falling Snow
And Now The Blog
FEATURE LENGTH FILMS
I Can’t Think Straight
STARRING LISA RAY & SHEETAL SHETH
The World Unseen
STARRING LISA RAY & SHEETAL SHETH
AUDIOBOOKS
I Can’t Think Straight
READ BY LISA RAY
The World Unseen
READ BY LISA RAY
VISIT US ON THE WEB AT:
www.enlightenment-productions.com
Copyright © 2004 Shamim Sarif
The right of Shamim Sarif to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
‘She Tells Her Love While Half Asleep’ by Robert Graves, published in
Complete Poems in One Volume
by Carcanet Press Limited, 2001, edited by Beryl Graves and Dunstan Ward and reproduced by permission of Carcanet Press Limited.
Extract from the closing sequence of ‘The Dead’,
Dubliners
reproduced by permission of the Estate of James Joyce.
This edition published for the US by Enlightenment Press, 2010
ISBN 978-0-9560316-2-4
E-Book ISBN: 978-1-4392-8135-2
For Hanan, Ethan & Luca,
for the revelation you have bestowed –
that every moment of life can be wondrous and beautiful
.
And in memory of David Pitblado,
who in life and death taught everyone he touched
that life is a gift
T
he following people were invaluable during the process of researching this book:
My sister Anouchka who accompanied me to Moscow, and who introduced me to Nazim Walimohamed, who was so generous with his time and contacts. Marina Rabinskaya took on the role of guide and proved to be a superb interpreter. She also helped me to find people who remembered Khrushchev’s leadership. Galina Dronova, Yuri Bychkov and Zinaida Gurevitch provided an overall sense of that time as well as much important nuance and detail in their recollections of the period. Michael Weinstein helped to consider the most probable plotlines over (not too much) vodka in Moscow. Thanks also to Yasmine Naber who introduced me to Varvara Underwood here in London and to Zinaida Chnitko, who took the time to answer the questions that arose later in the writing process.
Thanks to my agent Euan Thorneycroft for his excellent guiding comments and to Rosie de Courcy, for her delicate editing. Thanks also to David Pitblado and Katherine Priestley for an excellent final reading. And immense gratitude to my partner, Hanan Kattan, for everything, not least her brilliant, thorough, incisive close reading. It is a rare dream for a writer to have an involved, sensitive reader who knows what you wish to convey, and is unafraid to tell you if you have not quite managed it. It is a thankless task, but I thank her for it.
SHAMIM SARIF is a novelist, screenwriter and film director. She recently wrote and directed the motion picture adaptation of her own first novel,
The World Unseen
, which was the winner of a Betty Trask Award and the Pendleton May First Novel Award. The film
The World Unseen
is the recipient of 23 international awards.
She is also the writer/director of the feature film
I Can’t Think Straight
, winner of 11 awards, which is based on her novel of the same name.
Despite the Falling Snow
is her second novel. She lives in London with her partner Hanan and their two children.
“
Despite the Falling Snow
by Shamim Sarif, one of our most outstanding young novelists, is my novel of the year: its delicate artistry and immense compass reaches back to the labyrinthine heart of Soviet Russia.”
– Stevie Davies,
THE INDEPENDENT
“Explores love and tragic loss with the pace of a thriller and a style that is gentle and flowing, a hypnotic combination that eases between the US and 1950s Moscow... A pure delight, highly recommended.”
–
THE BOOKSELLER
“An intriguing story of love, betrayal, anguish and despair... Shamim Sarif brings her characters to life with a delicacy of touch evocative of the intensity of their passions. An enthralling read.”
–
DAILY DISPATCH
“A perfectly balanced novel of love and tragedy… brutally shocking. The beauty of the streets of Moscow, the bejewelled architecture of the metro stations, is all a majestic backdrop to a play of mistrust and deception, where friends, even the best of friends, can turn against each other in fear.”
–
WATERSTONES MAGAZINE
“Written with a controlled passion, in translucent prose with fluent dialogue, this story is, quite literally, breathtaking.”
–
THE GOOD BOOK GUIDE
“Shamim Sarif’s intense and elegant first novel drew on her South African roots. This one shows that her cultural compass can stretch even wider without dulling the delicacy of her gaze… Highly readable.”
–
THE INDEPENDENT
“Sarif’s thrilling new novel makes me think of the
The English Patient
and
The French Lieutenant’s Woman
. Like those books, it has at its core an unforgettable love story. Yet Sarif also understands the human cost exacted by totalitarian systems. And she knows that the worst betrayals are those committed by the ones we love. Her novel is immensely powerful – and deeply moving.”
– Steve Yarbrough, author of
THE OXYGEN MAN
“A compelling read, flicking expertly between the tragic present and tumultuous past… Haunting at times, Shamim’s elegant prose weaves a poignant tale indeed.”
–
CRUSH BOOKS
By Shamim Sarif
