Hadji Murat

Such was chosen and completed today because of its relevance to the weekend's alarming news from the Caucuses, it proved a compelling echo to Kim. Is should go without stating, that I much prefer Tolstoy to Kipling.

My wife completed City of Thieves last night and we agree that it is a sound novel, rife with life but lacking scope and scale of Vasily Grossman and W.T. Vollmann.