Little Apple

Now back in print, a stylish thriller set during the Russian revolution that Ian Fleming called "a work of genius".

Vittorin, a young Austrian officer, has just been released from a Russian POW camp toward the end of the Great War. In Vienna his family, his girlfriend, and his old job await him, but Vittorin can’t think of settling down until he has settled the score with the sadistic camp commander, Staff Captain Selukov. Private obsession and political turmoil mix as Perutz leads his hero on a manhunt into the thick of the Russian civil war. In and out of prison, starving in the gutters of Moscow, thrown into revolutionary battle, Vittorin pursues his elusive quarry across postwar Europe. At each turn, he encounters only Fate’s joker, until, back in Vienna, Fate plays him the biggest joke of all.

©1987 Paul Zsolnay Verlag G. m. b. H. First Skyhorse edition copyright. Translation 2013 by HarperCollins Publishers (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Story of obsessive pursuit of revenge

Interesting plot with a variety of colorful characters and incidents. Scenes in revolutionary Russia which make u a large part of the novel are exciting. Perultz's treatment of the protagonist with sardonic humour is entertaining.

Not as strong as Perutz's other novels

Once we get out of Austria, it's a veritable hodgepodge. Feels like the author spent some time gathering interesting tidbits about the Russian Revolution and threw them all into a stewpot. Which I suppose is the leitmotif of the book: there is no plot, you just caught up in History and it twirls you round and round until you fall out of it somewhere, winded and worn out.