To The Lake

Wow what a gripping, thrilling and truly terrifying read. Imagine the pandemic we are living through only worse (yes I know it’s been bad) but as terrifying as COVID has been an authors imagination of a pandemic can install the fear of aloneness, a pack idea and fending for oneself and family and no one else. This follows a group of people, who might not get on with one another and at times hate each other, but have to live with each other or else risk falling behind, this makes the whole journey even more gripping. If you love a suspenseful and chilling novels this is one for you!!!!

Expertly written. I was gripped, completely lost in the chaos'


Ladies and Gentlemen, I have a new favourite book.


Inspired by the flu epidemic in Moscow, the novel is a bestseller in Russia and has even been adapted into a hit Netflix series. The original story has now been translated into English and is ready to take the UK by storm in November, 2021.


As soon as I read the description for 'To The Lake' by Yana Vagner, I knew this would be a book I would love. So when I saw I was selected to read and review I was over the moon, I cuddled up in my bed, hot chocolate in hand and knew i was in for a long night of reading.


A couple of late nights later... and I'd finished it.


Anya & Sergey, who live close to the city of Moscow, are forced to leave their lives behind when faced with the harsh reality that Russia is on the brink of an epidemic. Faced with impossible decisions, unlikely friends and the knowledge that time is running out, the pair head to the only place they are certain is safe, to the lake.


'To The Lake' is expertly written, I was gripped, completely lost in the chaos.

I really enjoyed this thriller, it’s expertly written, compelling and the plot is perfect.
For fans of survivalist thrillers this is a must read. I loved it

I really enjoyed this book, it was very in- depth, atmospheric and descriptive. The characters were fully formed and you really felt you knew them and could feel the strain they were under. It felt like you would imagine it would - possible danger lurking around every corner, uncertainty in weather you’re doing the right thing and ultimately totally responsible for your own survival and those of your loved ones! It would make a great film. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I was absolutely glued to this book. A virulent, killer virus is killing off cities in Russia. Perhaps this is repeated throught the world - we don't know because communications and power have all stopped. People turn on each other; everyone, everywhere could be a threat. Food, petrol and water are at a premium and people will do anything to get them. After a violent raid, our group - starting with 2 neighbouring households decide to try and get to a member's remote, far off fishing cottage by a lake in the far North of Russia, many hundreds of kilometers away.
The group expands, faces many challenges. It's a simple idea but so well written; and people's thoughts, attitudes and opinions are fascinating more perhaps, because these are such 'ordinary' people - no heroes or supermen. Atrocities, violence, collapse of civilisation and horrific 'solutions' are described and we can only be thankful that our current pandemic did not get this extreme. (We already saw signs of the breakdown of our society but at least the brawling was only over loo rolls and protests over lack of freedom - enough of us being alive to manage that!) This was a dire picture of how things could break down when whole city populations die out. A harrowing and sober warning!

To The Lake by Yana Vagner

When a virulent flu epidemic sweeps through Moscow, killing hundreds of thousands of inhabitants, Anya and her husband Sergei decide to flee to a lake in the far north of Russia.
I have read books that have been translated before and have often found that something can be lost.
Not in this book , it obviously had many similarities to what is happening in the world at the moment, but it is gripping , terrifying , and with the feeling of threat all around. I loved it.

I enjoyed this a lot. It was long and complex but I couldn’t stop reading. It was well written and translated, and I enjoyed the descriptions of remote parts of Russia. The characters were rounded and the situations they found themselves in felt authentic. It had echoes of The Stand (without the supernatural elements) and The Road (burbles bleak). Recommended.

Moscow is hit by a mystery virus and many people are dying. As the city is closed off from the outside Anya and Sergey, who live in their dream home outside Moscow, with Anya's son decide to leave and travel north to a holiday home on a remote lake. They are jooined by Sergey's first wife and son, by Sergey's Dad and the next door neighbour with their little girl. To get to their destination they will need to do battle with hostile looters, winter roads off the beaten track, temperatures of minus twenty, and find enough fuel en route to go the distance. Its a highly topical plot, well written (and translated). You can tell its in Russia because everybody smokes all the time, even when topping up the fuel tanks. A gripping tale and a good read.

Written before the current COVID pandemic this book, a bestseller in Russia, is about the breakdown in society when a virulent and deadly flu virus strikes. The story follows Anya (the narrator) and Sergey as they strive to escape from Moscow to the hoped safe haven of a holiday home on an island in the middle of a lake in the frozen wilderness of northern Russia. Accompanied by relatives, neighbours and ‘friends’ this four vehicle convoy struggles with the weather, lack of fuel and those bent on taking what little they have. Yana Vagnar has produced a gripping story with believable characters which held my interest throughout. Highly recommended.

This is a chilling, well written thriller that is timely and gives a fictional slant on how civilisation can decline during the time of plague - or, in our time, Covid-19. Horrifying, violent at time, but with an urgent onward motion which makes use of the story archetype, the quest. To be recommended for readers of action -oriented thrillers.

Thanks to Netgalley for the book. Thanks for this great book, which made me forget the bitterness of the world for a few days, by highlighting its horrors, yet leaving a little hope. Because hope is in us and in our loved ones, we can trust in ourselves and in them to find the meaning of life, the purpose of struggle, love, even in plagues and wars.
The story of the book bears many similarities to my own life. An escape from the many horrors that make our lives difficult and bitter. We can call this an epidemic, a plague, or even a war. But today, the people, the state, the bureaucracy, the woke, the BLM and the gender movement, neoliberalism, the destruction of nature, the false greens, the communists, the Brussels bureaucrats, the liberals and socialists of the European Parliament, the repressive machinery of the United States we have to run away. These are the plagues of today, embodied in the covid, and thus, appear in this form in the book. Which is an apocalyptic vision in the form of an epidemic that shatters the current order of human society, causing chaos and collapse where we can’t trust anyone, we always have to keep our arms ready, because although love is our main guiding principle, we still have to assume the worst about our fellow human beings so that we can protect ourselves and our loved ones. Because we can have any kind of disputes with our wives, children, parents, friends, neighbors, yet we know them, we can trust them, we can love them and we can fight for them. Because even though we lose our faith in people, in the meantime we still believe in the love that binds those around us.
I fled to a tropical island where it was overtaken by state arbitrariness that expropriated my property, the destruction of nature, the influx of black migrants. From there I fled to a resort village near a big city, in the mountains. But there, too, the horrors of civilization, the barking of dogs, bad neighbors, ineffective administration, construction, human evil, have caught up.
So a week ago, like the characters in the book, I packed up in the car and set off with my wife on the way to the mountains and forests. And at the end of the road, on the border, on the bank of the small stream, I found the house where I now think I can find refuge from the plague that people, human evil represents.
Because of the above, it was a pleasure to read this book because it was as if the events of my own life had appeared in the pages of this book. I was reading a Russian story, yet it was as if the writer had written about me. To whom I thank this experience for actually writing about me, my life, my feelings, even with other characters, in other locations.
I don’t know how this book was received by readers, reviewers. But it means nothing. The bottom line is that it has given me a lot, the hope that the purpose of my life can still be found away from people and the depravity of society, intertwined with nature.
Today I ran 50 miles in the mountains, roasting beef and chestnuts. And I finished this exciting, unputdownable book.

I really enjoyed this book it was such a unique take on a pandemic book with the narrator being female and dealing with ex partners and an ever growing caravan onto the way to the lake.

I just want to see what happens next.

I was given an advance copy by netgalley and the publisher but the review is entirely my own.

Quickly paced, well written, and absolutely thrilling.

We are all currently living in a pandemic but this book still manages to shock and thrill.

Really good read

A deadly flu epidemic sweeps through Moscow, killing hundreds of thousands. Anya and her husband Sergey decide they have no choice but to flee to a lake in the far north of Russia.
Joining them on their journey are her son and father-in-law; Sergey's ex-wife and son; and their garish neighbours. But then some friends of Sergey show up to complete Anya's list of people she’d least like to be left with at the end of the civilised world.
As the wave of infection expands from the capital, their food and fuel start to run low. Menaced both by the harsh Russian winter and by the desperate people they encounter, they must put their hatreds behind them if they’re to have a chance of reaching safety…

This is a great read.
Wonderful well written plot and story line that had me engaged from the start.
Love the well fleshed out characters and found them believable.
Great suspense and found myself second guessing every thought I had continuously.
Can't wait to read what the author brings out next.
Recommend reading.

I was provided an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher. This is my own honest voluntary review.

I loved this book. Read it in three days which is quick for me! I was with them always on this terrifying journey but had to stop on occasion as I couldn't cope with the tension. The relentless cold was ever present and Sergey's duty to his other family (which was totally understandable) seen from the eyes of Anya, we got a different perspective entirely. I give it 10 out of 10 and have recommended it to all my friends and family,

Cor, I absolutely LOVED this book! I have always been a fan of post-apocalyptic and pandemic type novels, but for obvious reasons didn’t really go near them for a while. I read The End of Men a few months ago and it well and truly whet my appetite for revisiting the genre and so when To The Lake crossed my path, I just knew I had to read it.

Written before the Covid pandemic and based on a real-life flu epidemic in Moscow, this book examines what happens when a deadly flu virus sweeps the world and how it impacts both a small group of people and society. Written from the perspective of a woman named Anya, Vagner allows us inside her head to take us on an intense and compelling journey.

Anya lives with her son, Mishka and her husband, Sergey in a beautiful house just outside Moscow. The book opens with the death of her mother, a victim of the illness which has been felling Moscovites left, right and centre. It started as something inconsequential but soon the theatres and opera were closed, and then the schools, then overnight the city was barricaded. Anya’s mother who lived inside the city stood no chance, and Anya is trapped outside the walls, unable to get to one of the people she loves the most. As the epidemic grows, tensions and fear rises and a decision is made to leave their home for a remote lake in the north of the country which they hope will be safer. But they’re not the only ones who want to find safety and so, three cars head to safety filled with neighbours, wider family members, food, clothing, guns and medicines.

What follows is a chilling book about their journey to an island situated in the centre of a lake. Set against a backdrop of a Russian winter this motley crew of people battle not only the encroaching virus but the harsh terrain. Vagner has created an atmospheric and tense narrative of clashing personalities, extreme fear and increasing desperation to reach safety. There are moments of high peril where I really couldn’t read fast enough – I just had to know what happened next and if they would get out of their dangerous situation safely.

It is also a wonderful examination of relationships and what happens when a number of people who wouldn’t necessarily ordinarily mix are thrown together. One of the group is Sergey’s ex-wife, a woman still scorned by his infidelity with Anya and the two women do quiet, but lethal battle with shots fired via words carefully chosen with the intention to wound. It makes for delicious reading, adding another layer of tension to an already tense book.

This is one of those books where a general sense of unease leaches from every page. We’re hopeful that they’ll find safety, but know that the journey is treacherous and it is also possible that they will not outrun the virus. Vagner creates some haunting imagery of not only the landscape of thick forests covered in snow, but towns and villages where danger is at every corner. It’s absolutely brilliant and one of my favourite books of the year.