The Unreliable People

Antonina is a student at the prestigious Academy of Art in St Petersburg. At times, though, she feels she might be a better fit at the Centre of Nonconformist Art across town. She knows she stands out as different, being neither Russian, Korean nor Kazakh — and yet she embodies all three. She is Koryo-saram: a descendant of the exiled population that Stalin labelled the Unreliable People. But what does that mean? And who was the strange, elegant woman who came to the window when Antonina was a young child? And why did she entice Antonina to climb out and go on a long train journey through Kazakhstan?

This is a compelling story where love and loss intersect unexpectedly with a Korean fable about a crow king and a rice farmer’s wife.

‘Allan’s descriptions of scenes and landscapes are evocative, and you can see the shabby streets of St Petersburg and the windswept Kazakh steppes easily in your mind’s eye.’
Rachel Moore, Booksellers NZ

‘The cast of characters is incredibly well-fleshed out. Not just our main characters but also their friends and networks feel real. There’s a really good layering of the social, the political, and the historical… The prose is beautiful. It has a really strong sense of place, landscape, and food, especially the way the light changes through the year. I found the architecture of St Petersburg especially very compelling.’
Louise O’Brien, NZ Review of Books

Listen to Louise’s review of The Unreliable People on Nine-To-Noon.