Pig: A Thriller
()
About this ebook
Snowden Nastiuk has gone to Russia after the time of the fall of Communism to bury himself, a loser in a loser nation in a world that wants only winners.
Buried in a job working as a Document Controller in a Russian oil camp near Noyabrsk, Snow is – not happy, but at least content sitting out his life in a setting where he thinks he won’t have to feel any more pain. He has a job where he only has to interact with paper, not humans; a setting far from family and friends; and enough vodka to dull anything that threatens to get in past his defences.
Until the woman walks into his life, literally. Magda Perskanski – physicist, gulag survivor, brothel madame, overseer of the Deficit Exchange Club, psychic capable of reading people’s pasts, mathabeautician – simply barges into his porta-cabin one day when Snow refuses to answer her knocking and kicks the legs out the crutches he’s come to depend on; she recognizes something deep inside the chuzhie that she knows is inside herself and refuses to let another human being suffer the same way as she has done.
Little by little, Magda draws Snow out, first the story of what has caused him so much pain – the suicide of his mother when he was a young boy and the mindless death of his young girlfriend by a falling tree in the forest on a camping trip – then out of his torpor and the start of his first tentative steps back into the landmine-filled world of personal relationships. Not only is there Magda, there is Kolya, the unrepentant Communist who works with Snow in Document Control. And there is Pig –Porfiry Makahonic – the camp boss who rules everything in “his” oil camp with an iron fist, including his pet Doctor.
There is also the mysterious sickness that keeps affecting and even killing the labourers in the oil camp’s pipeline/pigging system and laboratory, something which concerns Magda deeply, but which Snow doesn’t care about until Kolya ends up dead protecting the integrity of “his” documents against the crimes going on in camp.
Crawling out of his vodka bottle long enough to go digging inside the day-to-day documents of the oil camp, Snow and Magda find evidence that Pig and the Doctor are hijacking radioactive cesium used in oil well-bore reading equipment and medical instruments and smuggling it out of the camp through the pig in the pipeline to terrorists who plan to use it in dirty bombs in Manhattan, Manchester and Mumbai.
Before they can get the information to the authorities – no one is sure whom to trust in a still-reeling Russia run by the siloviki and absent rule of law – Snow is found half-frozen outside of his cabin on a cold winter’s night. Did somebody try and kill him or did he decide to follow his mother and ex-lover into death? In the end, Magda manages to bring Pig to justice and guide Snow back to a life he deserved all along.
Darvin Babiuk
Author of his own misfortunes, Darvin Babiuk writes history, novels, short stories, translations, articles, shopping lists, and has more than once been considered a write-off. He hopes to be around to write his own obituary. Friends and relatives say he has never been the same after the tragic incident at the Moose Factory 47th annual Dmitro Petrycyshyn Pickerel and Perogies Cribbage tournament. His turn-ons include women with mustaches, Men Without Hats (The musical group, silly!), honey Dijon mustard and leopard frogs. If he were a vegetable, he'd be a beet, pithy but misunderstood. He wishes he could write like Scarlett Johansson's voice sounds. He has lived and worked in a number of overseas locations in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
Read more from Darvin Babiuk
Nobunaga World Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Love of a Silver Fox: Folk Tales from Seki City Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMost Secret Source: The Role of Enigma in WWII Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWashoku: Japanese Recipes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPIG: A Thriller Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPax Pox Nipponica Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5British Intelligence and the Formation Of a Policy Toward Russia, 1917-18: Missing Dimension or Just Missing? Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Traitor Brothers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBaba's Kitchen: From Borscht to Blini Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCrucifixion? Yes! A Sourcer-er’s Tale of Travel and Cultural Exploration from the Sitting-Next-to-the-Window Tribe Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Pig
Related ebooks
Squinnel and the Mystery of the Nutlet Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsYOU MIGHT DIE TOMORROW: Face Your Fear of Death to Live Your Most Meaningful Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSorcerous Stabber Orphen: The Wayward Journey Volume 11 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Volume 2: Belly Laughs for All! Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRedaction: Dark Hope Part III Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Bedtime Stories for the Criminally Insane (and poetry) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Steampunk Carol Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDecisions: Kaylid Novellas, #3 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTime for Tea Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFyre Fang Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBecoming: Tristan Trudaux Series, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAida Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDemon Fallout: The Return. Lycan Fallout 4.5 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Heart Specialist: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Chronicles of Lux Veritas: Evil at the Gates Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDoctor Dolittle’s Zoo Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOne Thousand Deaths: Wayfarers World Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIn A World Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBone Sliding Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTHE MAGICAL PUBLISHING PEN Collected Short Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPrisoner 374215: ESTO Universe, #1 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Purity of Heat and the Snow! Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDragon Heartbeats The Box Set: Books 1-6: Dragon Heartbeats Boxset, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Resurrection of Adam Ryker Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSpilled Ink Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPerambulations in Our Time Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCrystal and Cocktails: Anatomy of an Addict Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTennessee Night (The 8th Jack Nightingale Novel) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Faith of Jude: Ghost Hunters Mystery-Detective Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBaying For Blood: Indigo Skies, #2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Thrillers For You
The Perfect Marriage: A Completely Gripping Psychological Suspense Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Girl Who Was Taken: A Gripping Psychological Thriller Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Animal Farm Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Finn Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Terminal List: A Thriller Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Paris Apartment: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fairy Tale Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Huntress: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Flight: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pretty Girls: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Family Upstairs: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Sympathizer: A Novel (Pulitzer Prize for Fiction) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Different Seasons Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mr. Mercedes: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Maidens: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Institute: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Needful Things Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Razorblade Tears: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Cabin at the End of the World: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The It Girl Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Troop Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Golden Spoon: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Turn of the Key Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Whisper Man: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lying Game: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Eyes of the Dragon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leave the World Behind: A Read with Jenna Pick Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Related categories
Reviews for Pig
0 ratings0 reviews