We only get to see the edges of the action. It’s frustrating, because it’s hard to follow Rudi’s adventures from that kind of remove. In the last third of Europe in Autumn, Hutchinson starts to present his chapter-stories from the perspective of tertiary characters who happen to be people Rudi needs to find his tormenters. Some mysterious organization is hunting him, trying to get him to back off of his hunt for the people who are screwing up his life and hurting his family. It doesn’t help that someone is messing with him. He’s never able to get back into the groove after that. Even in an irregular occupation, this is too much for Rudi. Then he finds that partner’s head inside of a train station locker. Rudi is told to work with a partner after a partially failed mission. Then something goes terribly wrong in Berlin.
In the story-like chapters, we see Rudi grow from novice to journeyman spy and courier. Rudi is trained in their old-fashioned spy lingo and techniques, but the first time out, he’s captured and interrogated by the government of one of the new countries. Les Coureurs du Bois, named after the old French trappers. Sometimes packages or information needs to be delivered quietly.
In the new Europe, sometimes people need to travel under the radar or under different names. The next day, the restaurant receives a visit from their protector’s organization and Rudi finds himself with a new job. A group of rowdy Hungarian mafioso stop by for dinner, even though Restaurancja Max is supposed to be protected from this kind of thing. The novel opens in Krakow, in a small restaurant, where Rudi works as a chef. Europe in Autumn tells the story of Estonian chef-turned-courier, Rudi, in a series of apparently chronological stories. Fittingly, the novel is as fragmented as the setting. This possible future Europe would be a spy novelist’s dream because the only easy way to travel would be clandestinely. And in the future imagined by Dave Hutchinson in Europe in Autumn, all those barriers spring back to life and new countries create even more borders.
There’s too much history and too many languages for the continent to forget its many borders. It will be released 28 January 2014.Įven with the European Union erasing barriers to trade and travel, Europe is still a fractured continent. I received a free copy of this book to review from NetGalley, on behalf of the publisher.
0 kommentar(er)
