Louise Koski is the wife of a military attache, Arnie, who has just been posted to Helsinki, Finland, in 1946. She tries to quickly learn the inns and outs of living in a country situated next to and closely monitored by the U.S.S.R. In doing so, Louise befriends Natalya Bobrova, the wife of Mikhail, a Russian soldier her husband met and respected during WWII. But Louise unwittingly sets into motion an event that will upend all their lives. Marlantes drives home how residents in the Soviet Union were spied on and their movements surveilled during the terrifying reign of Joseph Stalin. As the saying goes, “the more things change, the more they stay the same”. A very timely read…