Not long ago I attended an author reading at Third Place Books in Bothell, a suburb of North Seattle. Since I spend my days ensconced in my apartment doing remote work at my computer, I have been searching for opportunities to get out. The thought of going alone to a movie or to a restaurant brings on feelings of loneliness, as I remember enjoying these activities with my sons when they were still living with or near me. Readings seemed the perfect answer, as they fed my appreciation for literature and were at core one-on-one relationships between authors and book readers. Searching through event calendars of bookshops and libraries, I came upon this one. It was not too difficult to get to on public transport, and I had fond memories of Marlantes from his novel Matterhorn, which in my opinion is one of the best books ever written on the Vietnam War.

Marlantes was at Third Place Books to promote his new novel, Cold Victory. He is not a prolific writer; this is only his third novel after Matterhorn and Deep River, which is about a family that flees Finland and relocates to a logging community in the Pacific Northwest. As a writer, Marlantes does not stray far from his roots. Matterhorn is based on his experiences as a Marine in the Vietnam War; Deep River draws on his Finnish ancestry and his childhood and youth in Seaside, a logging town in Oregon. Cold Victory he sets in Finland, the homeland of his ancestors, in the year 1947.

World War II is over, but Finland is trapped between the Western Powers and Stalin’s Russia. The story concerns an American couple, Arnie and Louise Koski, who have come to Helsinki for Arnie’s new posting as the American legation’s military attaché. Arnie is reunited with a Soviet officer he met during the war when they were allies, Mikhail Bobrov. In the course of an evening of heavy drinking, they challenge each other to a multi-day cross-country skiing race. They intend to keep the competition secret, as a matter of pride between two warriors, but when it becomes known, it turns into an affair of national and international honor between the United States and the Soviet Union. The novel cuts back and forth between the two racers and their wives, who are forced to deal with the devastating consequences of the publicity while their husbands toil across barren ice fields.

The book starts slowly; the tension only starts to build about fifty pages in when the men challenge each other to the race. After that, it steadily increases as the real stakes become apparent. Mikhail’s wife Natalya, used to living under the paranoia of the Soviet system, realizes the peril her family is in should her husband fail to win the race.

This book effectively exposes the gut-wrenching reality of the opposing forces at work during this suspicion-filled time at the beginning of the Cold War. It is epitomized by the untenable position of Finland: first in 1939 it was in a war for territory against the Soviet Union, then in 1941 it was an ally of Germany, then it was an enemy of Germany, and then it was a buffer zone between the Western and Soviet blocs, uncertain not only of its long-term but also its immediate future. Ultimately, though, the novel becomes the story of two couples who desire only friendship but become caught in the insane political machinations of the times. It is a compelling, entertaining, and deeply emotional story. Highly recommended.