Child 44
1st US edition
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| Author | Tom Rob Smith |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Thriller |
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Publication date
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2008 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover and paperback) |
| Pages | 400 |
| ISBN | |
| Followed by | The Secret Speech |
Child 44 (published in 2008) is a thriller novel by British writer Tom Rob Smith. This is the first novel in a trilogy featuring former MGB Agent Leo Demidov, who investigates a series of gruesome child murders in Joseph Stalin's Soviet Union.
This novel, the first in a trilogy, takes inspiration from the crimes of Andrei Chikatilo (though he operated much later) - also known as the Rostov Ripper, the Butcher of Rostov, and the Red Ripper - who was convicted of and executed for committing 52 murders in the Soviet Union. In addition to highlighting the problem of Soviet-era criminality in a state where "there is no crime", the novel explores the paranoia of the age, the education system, the secret police apparatus, orphanages, homosexuality in the USSR, and mental hospitals.
The second and third books in the trilogy, titled The Secret Speech (April 2009) and Agent 6 (July 2011), respectively, also feature the protagonist Leo Demidov and his wife, Raisa.
Child 44 has been translated into 36 languages. Additionally, it was nominated for 17 international awards and won seven.
In 2008, it was named on the long list for the Man Booker Prize, nominated for the 2008 Costa First Novel Award (former Whitbread), and received the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger award for best thriller of the year from the Crime Writers' Association. It was also shortlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize for a first novel in 2008, and Smith was awarded the 2008 Galaxy Book Award for Best New Writer.
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