I loved the Rose Code by Kate Quinn and yet I was a bit reluctant to read a novel about a female sniper.
You're drawn in immediately by the story of Mila Pavlichenko. She's a history student with a five year old son. Her husband was married to her under duress, after getting her pregnant as a mere fifteen year old. He's always absent, yet somehow can't show up to file divorce papers.
Alexi has their son Slavka for the day, and he's showing the little guy how to fire a rifle at the firing range. He has no patience for the child's inability to handle, let alone shoot the weapon. He's showing off for some young girls and fellow marksmen.
Mila is furious. She has had some rifle training of her own, and after this incident in which Alexi belittles both her and her son, she vows to get the next level of training in marksmanship. She can do anything a man can do, she tells the boy, and she will be able to be both father and mother to him. He will miss out on nothing.
At the training session, the instructor refers to the students as snipers. Most do not like this, and Mila certainly doesn't. If war comes, says the man, everyone will do what is necessary.
Mila is at Odessa, working in the library while she finishes her schooling. She's having a day at the beach with friends, and is going to the ballet tonight. It is announced that the Nazis have crossed the border into Russia unprovoked, and they are moving forward.
Visions of her home and her son being overrun force Mila into action. She enlists immediately and is sent to the front. She digs trenches for the first month. The first shots she fires are on the battlefield, not knowing if she's hit anyone or not.
Asked by a senior officer to try to take out invading officers who are encamped nearby, Mila successfully does the job. She tries to focus on her arms training. Do all the steps calmly, prepare, don't miss.
Faced with the overwhelming invading armies, Mila becomes part of, then in charge of a group of trained snipers. Slow down the enemy. Gather information that can be used once they're down. Fight to keep alive and keep your company alive.
Interspersed in her frankly thrilling narrative are chapters taking place during a tour of the United States. Most of these are from the point of view of an assassin. Some are from Eleanor Roosevelt's viewpoint. Mila at his time has 309 confirmed kills. The number is almost certainly higher. The questions she's asked point out what an unusual and impossible being she is, this woman who is a sniper. There is much disbelief. After reading her story, you know it is all true, but it's odd to see her subjected to the wild animal on parade treatment after all she's been through.
I did not enjoy these "interruptions" in the story while I was reading, but it was another thrilling chapter in Mila's story in the book once the present and future merged (though apparently not in real life. There was a tour, but no assassin).
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