I just finished reading “The Lost Souls of Leningrad,” a page-turner historical novel by Suzanne Parry set in Stalinist Russia on the eve of and during World War II.

Like all good historic fiction, it takes the very real, very horrible historical events of those years to help spin a tale about the impacts of war: civilian starvation, Nazi air raids, personal tragedies, everyone living fearfully in a brutal dictatorship and their resilience through it all.

Pondering “Lost Souls,” I imagine a historical novel written years from now set in these very days in the United States, swirling with the events we are living through. Would-be novelists should keep careful notes.

Early in “Lost Souls” I read with particular horror about police rounding up people for allegedly doing — or saying — things contrary to the dictates and whims of the Communist Party and Josef Stalin. Some were also dragged in because Stalin simply wanted them hurt or to disappear. There was no due process — what we all normally expect in our country. Instead, no judges, no evidence presented........

© Finger Lakes Times