Cold Victory by Karl Marlantes is a great listen on audiobook, read by Bronson Pinchot. The narrator's voice is excellent, accents are spot-on, and he does a great job with differentiating the characters.

I enjoyed the story very much! It has the feel of an espionage thriller, but the added intrigue of the friendship between the wives and the two men makes it much more interesting to me. It took a long time to build the background and for the skiers to actually begin the race, and in fact the race is actually less than half the book which surprised me. I liked the wives' characters quite a lot, although Louise annoyed me with some of her complete cluelessness about the consequences of her actions.

Thank you to Netgalley and Blackstone Publishing-Audiobooks for the audio review copy of Cold Victory by Karl Marlantes. The opinions in this review are my own.

This novel takes place in a time and place I had never thought about - Finland after WWII but before the allies had signed a peace treaty officially ending the war with Finland and right before the Cold War begins. Two couples, one Russian and one American and coming from completely different vantage points try to build a friendship. The men, both world-class skiers challenge each other to a friendly but secret wilderness race while the women try to raise money for an orphanage. What Louise, the American, doesn’t realize, is how the Russian government and culture functions, and it turns out it is to the grave detriment of her friends. She promotes the race as a publicity stunt to raise money for the orphanage and in doing so puts the lives of her Russian friends, and their children at risk. Louise now has to figure out how to save her friends from their own government.

I had somehow miss that Finland actually fought with Germany during the war, I learned a bit about post-WWII diplomacy and history in this book. The relationship between the women was very interesting (based on their backstories) and the backdrop of post war Finland was such a new setting for a novel. The descriptions of ex-pat women having to dress the part and speak appropriately while supporting their men fully reminded me of Absolution. The Cold War concepts reminded me of the spy novels I read in high school - together this was like another one of those book babies - a mix of Absolution and the spy novels of the 70s and 80s. It was a fun listen and I’m so glad that my friend told me to pick it up!

Thank you to Blackstone Publishing for the ARC to review

Wow! The tension in this is palpable. When we think of the Cold War, we often think of things like the Cuban Missile crisis. This look at the very early days of the developing rift was fascination.

I only listened to the first 15% of this audiobook. I just could not get into the plot or the characters. The writing and narration were fine. My attention was just not held.

In post-WWII Finland where the US and Russia both have a strong presence, old friends during the war, American diplomat Arnie and Russian Mikhail, reconnect at a party. Emboldened by a few drinks the men challenge one another to a cross-country ski race across Finland in the harsh winter conditions. With their wives baffled at this show of testosterone and patriotism, they work to make the race a fund-raiser for an orphanage. The race represents communism vs capitalism and the prospect of losing the race means more than the loss of pride.

COLD VICTORY explores the value of individual lives over history and politics and how our perceptions of war can change. When the truth is fluid and propaganda runs rampant the stakes for the ski race couldn’t be higher.

Learning about Finland’s history during WWII and considering the cultural ramifications of a diplomatic mis-step were fascinating to me. I always love themes of loyalty and sacrifice and this book had it in spades. I pick up historical fiction to gain new world perspectives, and COLD VICTORY certainly delivered on that front.

READ THIS IF YOU:
-find little known parts of history fascinating
-have ever made a friendly wager
-love stories of women helping women

RATING: 4.5/5 (rounded up to 5 stars)
PUB DATE: January 9, 2024