The Sunday Telegraph, Benjamin Evans
A.D. Miller’s engrossing debut…offers an entirely believable portrait of a man complicit in Moscow’s moral freefall…Miller brilliantly showcases the city as his novel’s strutting, charismatic star…It is a bravura setting for a study in morality…disturbing and dazzling.The Sunday Telegraph, Benjamin Evans
A.D. Miller2023-06-26T09:35:49+01:00A.D. Miller’s engrossing debut…offers an entirely believable portrait of a man complicit in Moscow’s moral freefall…Miller brilliantly showcases the city as his novel’s strutting, charismatic star…It is a bravura setting for a study in morality…disturbing and dazzling.The Sunday Telegraph, Benjamin Evans
https://admillerbooks.com/testimonials/the-sunday-telegraph-benjamin-evans/The Spectator, Charlotte Hobson
A heady noseful of Moscow, an intoxicating perfume that will whirl you off your feet and set your moral compass spinning…A.D. Miller’s sophisticated and many-layered debut novel skewers the relationship between victim and abuser, self-delusion and corruption, love and moral freefall.The Spectator, Charlotte Hobson
A.D. Miller2023-06-26T09:30:50+01:00A heady noseful of Moscow, an intoxicating perfume that will whirl you off your feet and set your moral compass spinning…A.D. Miller’s sophisticated and many-layered debut novel skewers the relationship between victim and abuser, self-delusion and corruption, love and moral freefall.The Spectator, Charlotte Hobson
https://admillerbooks.com/testimonials/the-spectator-charlotte-hobson/The Independent, Leyla Sanai
Miller’s debut novel is an electrifying tour of the dark side of Moscow, and of human nature…A gorgeously crafted story of a man hurtling into love…Snowdrops assaults all your senses with its power and poetry, and leaves you stunned and addicted.The Independent, Leyla Sanai
A.D. Miller2023-04-25T16:17:08+01:00Miller’s debut novel is an electrifying tour of the dark side of Moscow, and of human nature…A gorgeously crafted story of a man hurtling into love…Snowdrops assaults all your senses with its power and poetry, and leaves you stunned and addicted.The Independent, Leyla Sanai
https://admillerbooks.com/testimonials/2047/The Times, Kate Saunders
Tight, compelling...A totally gripping first novel.The Times, Kate Saunders
A.D. Miller2023-05-03T13:51:41+01:00Tight, compelling...A totally gripping first novel.The Times, Kate Saunders
https://admillerbooks.com/testimonials/2213/The Seattle Times, Adam Woog
Memorably captures [Moscow's] atmosphere during the glitzy, anything-goes era that succeeded Soviet Communism...Miller's uncluttered prose and feel for the city's Wild West atmosphere are pleasures.The Seattle Times, Adam Woog
A.D. Miller2023-05-03T13:56:19+01:00Memorably captures [Moscow's] atmosphere during the glitzy, anything-goes era that succeeded Soviet Communism...Miller's uncluttered prose and feel for the city's Wild West atmosphere are pleasures.The Seattle Times, Adam Woog
https://admillerbooks.com/testimonials/the-seattle-times-adam-woog/The Financial Times, Adrian Turpin
A.D. Miller's elegant and compact literary thriller...offers an alluring yet chilling portrait of the city...the pleasure of Miller's first novel is divining the precise nature of the deceptions, and self-deceptions, taking place. A superlative portrait of a country in which everything has its price, Snowdrops displays a worldly confidence reminiscent of Robert Harris at his best.The Financial Times, Adrian Turpin
A.D. Miller2023-05-03T13:57:18+01:00A.D. Miller's elegant and compact literary thriller...offers an alluring yet chilling portrait of the city...the pleasure of Miller's first novel is divining the precise nature of the deceptions, and self-deceptions, taking place. A superlative portrait of a country in which everything has its price, Snowdrops displays a worldly confidence reminiscent of Robert Harris at his best.The Financial Times, Adrian Turpin
https://admillerbooks.com/testimonials/the-financial-times-adrian-turpin/Booklist, US
Masterful debut...A mesmerizing tale of a man seduced by a culture he fancies himself above, Miller's novel is both a nuanced character study and a fascinating look at the complexities of Russian society.Booklist, US
A.D. Miller2023-05-03T13:58:58+01:00Masterful debut...A mesmerizing tale of a man seduced by a culture he fancies himself above, Miller's novel is both a nuanced character study and a fascinating look at the complexities of Russian society.Booklist, US
https://admillerbooks.com/testimonials/booklist-us/The Daily Mail, John Harding
The wonderfully evoked corrupt atmosphere of modern Moscow, a dangerous mix of extreme poverty and decadent wealth, of simple old-fashioned values and unrestrained debauchery reads like Graham Greene on steroids... Tightly written, with fascinating insider detail gained in three years as The Economist magazine's Moscow correspondent, Miller's complex, gripping debut novel is undoubtedly the real thing.The Daily Mail, John Harding
A.D. Miller2023-05-03T15:37:44+01:00The wonderfully evoked corrupt atmosphere of modern Moscow, a dangerous mix of extreme poverty and decadent wealth, of simple old-fashioned values and unrestrained debauchery reads like Graham Greene on steroids... Tightly written, with fascinating insider detail gained in three years as The Economist magazine's Moscow correspondent, Miller's complex, gripping debut novel is undoubtedly the real thing.The Daily Mail, John Harding
https://admillerbooks.com/testimonials/the-daily-mail-john-harding/00A.D. Miller
Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, the James Tait Black Prize, the LA Times Book Awards, the Galaxy National Book Awards and the CWA Gold Dagger.
Snowdrop (n):
An early-flowering bulbous plant, having a white pendent flower.
Moscow slang. A corpse that lies buried or hidden in the winter snows, emerging only in the thaw.
Nick Platt is an English lawyer living in Moscow during the wild Russian oil boom. Riding the subway on a balmy September day, he rescues two willowy sisters, Masha and Katya, from a would-be purse snatcher.
Nick soon begins to feel something for Masha that he is pleased to believe is love. As the snow starts to fall, the sisters introduce him to Tatiana Vladimirovna, their aged aunt and the owner of a valuable apartment. Before summer arrives, Nick will travel down to the sweaty Black Sea and up to the Arctic, and he’ll make disturbing discoveries about his job, his lover and, most of all, himself.
Snowdrops is a fast-paced drama that unfolds during a beautiful but lethally cold Russian winter. Ostensibly a story of naive foreigners and cynical natives, the novel becomes something richer and darker: a tale of erotic obsession, self-deception and moral freefall. It is set in a land of hedonism and desperation, corruption and kindness, magical hideaways and debauched nightclubs; a place where secrets, and corpses, come to light when the snows thaw.
“In Russia,” Nick’s friend Steve tells him, “there are no business stories. And there are no politics stories. There are no love stories. There are only crime stories.”
Snowdrops is the first novel by A.D. Miller, formerly the Moscow correspondent of The Economist. Snowdrops is published in January 2011 by Atlantic in Britain, and in February by Doubleday in the United States and Harper Canada. It is also published in 25 other countries and languages.