Roger Pulvers

I think that's quite possible.

She's a liberated woman of the type who either came of age or was young during the 1920s in the Soviet Union, when for a time, you know,

there was something close to equality of the sexes, at least in word, if not entirely indeed, and free love and all these things.

So she's very liberated and very outspoken.

And I think that's one of the things that Paul Bauer finds very attractive and appealing in her.

So she's a very interesting, a very big character.

In fact, I found both Bauer and Bauer,

Trubitskaya, very well drawn characters.

For the time, I think Stephen Conti has a very good grasp of the period, its mores, the way people act toward each other and the way they speak with each other.

So I found that very appealing and very authentic.

Well, yes, the fiercest enemy of all is the winter where it goes below 40 degrees and everything from eyelashes to limbs are assaulted by the cold and frostbite takes many more victims than combat in that war.

And in fact, that's where one harks back to war and peace, where the invading army at that time was the French, but they were defeated by the winter.

And I think that's another

Very well-drawn aspect of this novel is the fact that there's an epic element to the winter.

And I think Stephen Conti's descriptions of the snow being churned up and the frost and the ice are very effective, sometimes quite lyrical.

And so much so that you begin to feel sorry for these terrible Nazi soldiers who you're supposed to hate.

They're having such trouble in this cold that you sort of start feeling sympathy for them.

Yes, that's right.

And there's a lot of descriptions of medical procedures, which also Strike One is very authentic.

So he's done his research on that.