Review of ” Hotel Moscow: A Novel” by Talia Carner

A taut thriller set in Russia in the immediate aftermath of the Soviet Union.

American businesswoman Brooke Fielding joins a friend on a mission to Moscow to teach business skills to Russian women, but finds corruption blocking her efforts at every turn.

Brooke’s parents fled Russia in the 1940s as a result of the persecution of their jewish faith and the underlying anti-Semitism still prevalent in Russia pervades the storyline throughout.

I hadn’t realised until I read the end notes that the author, Talia Carner, had been in Moscow a mere sixteen months after the fall of Communism and just as Boris Yeltsin was trying to put down a rebellion. There she joined a group of American businesswomen in exactly the same way as the lead character in the story so many parts of the story are based on her own experiences.

Carner has written a compelling tale of life during the fall of the Soviet Union, that is exciting, and a revelation of the misogynist attitude of many Russian men alongside the appalling corruption that the post-soviet power vacuum fostered.

However, from these challenges appears an ultimately heartening story of women working together to create change and empowerment with a great moving twist at the end!