Reviews

Fyodor Martens is an outsider at an inside job. A low-born orphan from the subject Baltic nation of Estonia, he has stood shoulder to disdainful shoulder with the Russian nobility, representing the Czar at crucial negotiations, including the Portsmouth Treaty with Japan and the Peace Conference at The Hague. In 1909, with ``Nicky'' (Czar Nicholas) and ``Willy'' (Kaiser Wilhelm) meeting, Martens takes a train from his home in Parnu, Estonia, to St. Petersburg. During the ride Martens, like some political Scrooge, is confronted by ghosts of the past, present and future: a nationalist revolutionary nephew en route to his trial; a young socialist journalist; a bohemian lover; the son he has never seen; and the unrelated 18th-century diplomat Georg Friedrich von Martens, who, like Fyodor Martens, compiled volumes of treaties and also, in the name of professional detachment, helped the Napoleonic invaders rule his native Westphalia. Like his namesake, Martens helped organize peace abroad and enormous loans from the French at home. ``One might say that I'm the one who has helped the machinery of state to survive, that I have generated a rather essential portion of the energy it has needed to go on functioning during these years of massacres!'' Kross ( The Czar's Madman ) has created a touching novel that works on two levels: as a smart, somewhat old-fashioned tale of politics, philosophy and ethics and as the tender, melancholy story of a man waking up to life just as he nears its end. (Mar.)

Professor Martens's train trip is filled with gentle reveries of his career as an Estonian diplomat, jurist, and negotiator of Russian treaties. His memories are full of czarist and revolutionary politics, turn-of-the-century Russian and European culture, international relations, and musings on the fragile identity of Estonia, making this a fascinating historical novel. But it is also a personal work, built on a highly realized character whose frank examination of all his frailties makes him highly memorable. This excellent translation is only the second of Kross's works to appear in English, although his works have appeared in 22 other languages. (His first was The Czar's Madman, LJ 11/15/92.) Even if your collection calls for little or no Eastern European fiction, consider buying Kross. Highly recommended.-- Ruth M. Ross, Olympic Coll. Lib., Bremerton, Wash.