CLIENT NEWS

Suzanne Parry's Powell's book launch!

Hello, hello my friends.

Boy, have my writer friends been busy this year. The latest happy news is from my client and buddy Suzanne Parry who is a week away from the Powell’s book launch for her debut, LOST SOULS OF LENINGRAD. Colleague, novelist, and Portland’s publishing icon, Laura Stanfill, will join Suzanne and myself in conversation Thursday, November 10th at 7:00 pm at the downtown Powell’s.

Kim Taylor Blakemore, author of The Deception, The Companion and After Alice Fell says, “Lost Souls of Leningrad” is a sweeping, heartbreaking, and life-affirming saga…A remarkable and immersive book that belongs on the shelf with Life and Fate.”

Recently, I had the honor of interviewing Suzanne about how she came to tell this story, and what’s next. We’ll delve further into these topics next Thursday, and I hope you’ll be part of the conversation!

SV: What led you to write historical novels about the fall of Leningrad? In fiction and film, the early 1940s often focuses on the Holocaust and Nazi occupation in other parts of Europe, what is it you’d like readers to know about Leningrad and World War II?

SP: My interest was planted decades ago when I studied in Moscow as a college student. We toured Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) and experienced fantastic museums, music, and architecture. But the thing that moved me most was a trip to the city’s largest cemetery, the Piskaryovskoye Memorial Cemetery. An expanse of large, flat, rectangular mass graves, striking in their simplicity, spread into the distance, each one holding thousands of the unknown dead from the World War II siege of Leningrad. It was a stunning and impactful moment in my life. Imagining all those lives cut short.

I did not immediately think “Oh, I have to write a book about this.” In fact, it would be thirty-five years before I began to write seriously. But when I turned to writing, I quickly knew I wanted to write about Leningrad. I was also motivated by the fact that most of the Soviet Union’s World War II history is not taught in the US. I didn’t even know about the siege until I was in college. I believe understanding the Soviet wartime experience can contribute to a better understanding of Russia society, Russian culture, and the Russian propensity for authoritarian rulers.

The last bit of motivation came from the fact that so little fiction has been written about the siege. Writers have no doubt steered clear because it is peculiarly challenging to write about a very dark episode in history. If your story is all death and starvation and bombs, no one will want to read it. That challenge intrigued me. And I was encouraged by the novels of David Benioff, Debra Dean, Helen Dunmore, and a few others, who have written well about this historical event.

I would like my readers to grasp the nature and extent of suffering in the Soviet Union during World War II while also understanding that Stalin inflicted equal amounts of suffering upon the Russian people both before and after the war. The wartime statistics are startling. Nine million Soviet soldiers and nineteen million Soviet civilians died. Several magnitudes more than any other nation. In Leningrad, approximately one million people lost their lives. Such losses are hard to comprehend. The United States suffered just over 400,000 casualties in World War II. That is fewer that the number of civilians buried in that single cemetery in Leningrad. This does not diminish the American loss of life, but it lends a valuable perspective.

SV: What can we learn about the current situation in Russia by reading this book?

SP: The legacy of authoritarianism so firmly established by Stalin in the 20th century persists today. Putin—who, by the way, is from Leningrad and is deeply familiar with its legacy of suffering—now inflicts a similar agony upon the innocent people of Ukraine. In addition, he has, during his 22 years in power, steadily removed the privileges of democracy—freedom of speech, freedom of the press, justice, and human rights—that Russia began to institute in the 1990s.

Another interesting thing is that Russians do not question their leaders as we do in the West. This tendency is both cultural and systemic. The Soviet system was so oppressive and so brutal that people learned to keep quiet, stay out of the way, keep their heads down and avoid attention. This is less true for the younger generations today who are more willing to question their leaders, but most Russians are afraid to contradict Putin or question his decisions. And just as Stalin did, Putin controls nearly all the information available to the average Russian. Many, if not most Russians do not know the truth about what is happening in Ukraine. The strategies that Putin uses to control Russia are straight out of the Soviet playbook.

SV: You have many memorable characters in Lost Souls. Do you have a favorite?

SP: This is a very difficult question. I love Sofya’s focus, energy, and devotion to her family; Yelena’s youthful enthusiasm and caring heart; Pavel’s courage and loyalty and his willingness to break the rules for those he loves. I relate to Vasili’s strong sense of duty, but also his desire to live the life he wants. He is probably the character I feel closest to as he reflects many of the attributes of a military officer I knew and worked with many decades ago.

SV: Will we see the Karavayeva family in your next book? Are you taking their story beyond WWII?

SP: Yes, but not the characters we’ve come to know in Lost Souls. The protagonist in my next novel (which also takes place during the war) is Katya Karavayeva, Sofya’s daughter-in-law and Yelena’s mother. She is a fascinating, complex Soviet woman who through the chaos of war is forced to reconsider both her personal failings and those of her beloved Communist Party. The Karavayevs’ story will continue beyond WWII in my third novel.

SV: Oh, I can’t wait. As you might remember, I found Katya to be the most enigmatic character—likely because she doesn’t get a point of view in Lost Souls. I’d love to delve into her head.

So, congratulations again, on this remarkable book. Any tips you’d like to add for aspiring authors?

SP: It’s trite, but don’t give up. Writing a novel is challenging and rewarding. But publishing a novel, getting your book out into the world is heavy on the challenge and light on the fun. So, understand it can be a difficult and demanding process, whether you are determined to get an agent and see your book sold to a traditional publisher or whether you decide to pursue an indie or hybrid publisher or handle it all yourself and self-publish. Each route has its advantages and disadvantages, and each requires hard work. Start by writing a good book. You can’t control everything in the publishing process, but you can learn to write well.

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Want to meet this wonderful person and get your hands on a copy of LOST SOULS OF LENINGRAD?

EVENTS: Local author Suzanne Parry will discuss her debut historical novel, Lost Souls of Leningrad, in conversation with Laura Stanfill and Suzy Vitello, at Powell’s City of Books on Thursday, November 10 at 7 pm. Equal parts war epic, family saga, and love story, this compelling tale is both a testament to human resilience and a harsh indictment of war and authoritarianism. Suzanne is a longtime Portland resident who once worked at the Pentagon where she negotiated security issues with the Soviets.

BIO: A former European security specialist, Suzanne Parry now writes historical fiction about the Soviet Union. She studied Russian in Moscow and worked at the Pentagon where she helped negotiate the first security agreement of the Gorbachev era—the Conference on Disarmament in Europe. To learn more visit SuzanneParrywrites.com.