Archangel tells the story of four days in the life of Fluke Kelso, a dissipated, middle-aged former Oxford historian who is in Moscow to attend a conference on newly opened Soviet archives. One night Kelso is visited in his hotel room by an old NKVD officer, a former bodyguard of the secret police chief, Lavrentii Beria. The old man claims to have been at Stalin's dacha on the night Stalin had his...
"How are your lectures going?" asked Kitty of Joseph, a kind of desperate intentness in her voice and face. This was her style of the moment with the male sex. "Very well, thank you," said Jospeh and added: "We heard about the practices of the Minoan Islanders upon reaching the age of puberty at the last one." He started snapping up his cutlet."Oh really, how terribly interesting!" said Kitty."Yes, very. Like to hear...