The year is 1946. A young boy living in Tallinn dreams of being a bus driver. One day his eye catches something that leaves him spell-bound. A beautiful Russian Pobeda! A car called Victory. 

The driver asks him if he wants to go for a spin. He lets him hold the steering wheel. He asks about his father. The boy answers even though he knows he is not supposed to. Shortly afterwards, his father disappears. 

Ilmar Taska transports you to the early days of the Soviet Union in Estonia, with his powerful debut novel, ‘Pobeda 1946: A Car Called Victory’. This is an Estonia where state terror against people was becoming an everyday part of normality; an Estonia much different to today. 

You meet a nameless family: parents and their little boy. Other nameless citizens are taken away daily to labour camps. The terror of living under constant state surveillance is palatable. 

Taska does not gratuitously describe the violence inflicted upon citizens. But it is always there. Lurking. 

The author is observant. He perfectly captures the contrast between the innocence of the warmth of the world the child’s parents try to offer him, and the grey shades of suspicion that shroud the country. 

A society wrought with mistrust and betrayals. An environment where everything you said had to be carefully considered. Where confessions were forced out of innocent people. Even unwitting children. 

The boy has been shielded by his parents from the reality and horrors of his surroundings. He is too young to understand why his dad never leaves the house, why their curtains are always closed. But doing their best to shield him has inadvertently made him an easy convert and informer for the KGB. 

This is the definition of a page turner. A book you won’t be able to put down. 

Ilmar Taska is best known in his native Estonia as a film director and producer. ‘Pobeda 1946: A Car Called Victory’ is his first full-length novel, and is based on a prize-winning short story from 2014.