AustLit

'Darcy and Fin are brother and sister, nearly. They share the same abusive father, but their mothers were sisters. The betrayal that marks their introduction to the world - Fin was conceived when her mother came to the house to nurse her sister through Darcy's difficult birth - has run through their lives like a river. The secrets and lies that define their childhood have made them only able to trust each other in the world, and when Fin sends Darcy a ticket to join her in Russia where she is living on an art scholarship, he cannot refuse. The only thing he has to promise Fin is that he won't cruise toilets or beats while he is in Russia - the hardline Communist government is anti-homosexual and not kindly disposed to promiscuous foreigners, which Darcy definitely is. Darcy doesn't keep his promise and is caught by the secret police. It is only when his passport is confiscated and he is beaten and interrogated in the notorious Lubyanka prison that he realises he is in a world of trouble and that Fin isn't telling him everything about her life there. He is only released after he agrees to entrap a man whose subversive behaviour threatens to embarrass his father-in-law, a high-raking general. In doing so, Darcy sets in motion a catastrophic chain of events that goes to the centre of power in Russia and blows the lid off a long-buried secret that the Soviets - and the US - are desperate to keep hidden. He also discovers that he doesn't know his carefree big sister at all - and maybe never did.'--(Provided by publisher)