MY FRIEND, MY ENEMY

Two women are caught up in the Russian-Chechen clash of the 1990s and 2000s.

This debut novel, based on historical events, is the story of two women: Alla, half-Chechen and half-Russian, and Nadezhda, a Moscow native. They become close friends as children, drift apart, reconnect as adults, and end up on opposite sides when Chechen rebels take hostages in a Russian theater in 2002. Alla receives a letter from Nadezhda shortly before her father, husband, and son are killed in a Russian airstrike, and she decides to move to Moscow and live with her old friend. Before she leaves Chechnya, Alla trains as a guerrilla fighter and commits to working with the rebels in the future. In Moscow, Nadezhda enjoys her job at an international school, but even though she was fired by the FSB after getting involved with an Englishman, her former spymasters stay in touch and continue to press her for information on her foreign friends and Alla. Over the course of several years, the two women make the most of life in an evolving Russia, with Alla working to support Chechen refugees in Moscow and Nadezhda developing a relationship with a Canadian American academic, an “unassuming but attractive foreigner.” Nadezhda and her boyfriend are enjoying an evening at the theater when Alla’s group takes the entire audience hostage, and the dramatic events bring major changes to both their lives. Goodings has clearly done substantial research, both on the Chechen conflict and on the atmosphere of Russia during the time period. The book brings its setting to life with vivid descriptions, and cameo appearances by Vladimir Putin and Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya add authenticity. Although the narrative’s pace can be a bit slow at times, the author does a solid job of balancing the many threads of a complex plot and illuminating the motivations of all the characters, showing how war affects even those who try not to participate in it. With its focus on a little-discussed area of recent history, the story is likely to appeal to historical fiction fans looking for something other than a World War II novel.

An insightful look at a forgotten conflict.