Cover image of "Victory Square," a tale of the fall of communism.

Some years ago I chanced upon one of Olen Steinhauer’s excellent contemporary spy stories, sped through it and read another. finally, in searching for more of his work, I found his five-novel cycle set in a fictional Central European country nestled among Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Austria. (Geographically, the country has to be Slovakia, which only gained its independence in 1993. But some readers think it more closely resembles Hungary.) Steinhauer’s cycle spanned the years from 1948, when the Soviet Empire consolidated its hold on the nations directly to its West, until 1990, when the USSR and the Warsaw Pact collapsed. And Victory Square, the final book in the cycle, depicts life in a city that may be Bratislava, Slovakia, during the fall of Communism.

A powerful tale of life under Communism

Victory Square may be the best of the five novels in Steinhauer’s Yalta Boulevard cycle. Steinhauer, an American who has lived for extended periods in several countries in the region, spent months, perhaps years, meticulously researching the fall of Nicolae Ceaușescu’s regime in Romania. That history forms the basis of the events that unfold in the novel in 1989-90. But the setting for the story is not Bucharest, Romania. Details in the book suggest a closer resemblance to Budapest or Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. The wave of popular revulsion that swept Ceaușescu from power was unusually violent, far more so than other revolts that brought about the fall of Communism elsewhere in Eastern Europe.

Victory Square (Yalta Boulevard #5) by Olen Steinhauer (2008) 368 pages ★★★★★ 

Photo of the Velvet Revolution in Bratislava in 1989
The Velvet Revolution wracked downtown Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, in November 1989. Image: Google Arts & Culture

At the end of the cycle, the fall of Communism

Against this background, Steinhauer introduces us to an aging homicide cop, Emil Brod, now Chief of the Militia, whom we met as a young rookie when he joined the Militia’s Homicide Squad in the country’s capital in 1948. Brod was the protagonist of the first novel in the cycle, The Bridge of Sighs, and has popped up throughout. Now just days from retirement, he is forced to contend with a host of challenges. An unraveling government. A series of shocking murders. A best friend engaged at the very center of the revolutionary movement. And an adoring wife even older than he who wants him to leave the capital early, before the inevitable explosion.

The full Yalta Boulevard cycle includes:

  • The Bridge of Sighs (2003), featuring Emil Brod in 1948
  • The Confession (2004), centering on Brod’s colleague, Ferenc Kolyeszar, taking place in 1956
  • 36 Yalta Boulevard (2005), featuring Brano Sev, the secret policeman who works in the Homicide Department and spies on the squad, set in 1966–1967
  • Liberation Movements (2006), featuring Brano Sev and Brod’s young colleagues, Katja Drdova and Gavra Noukas, taking place in 1968 and 1975
  • Victory Square (2007)

Incidentally, for what it’s worth, I traveled throughout Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union in 1965. I visited all the Warsaw Pact nations of the region. I spent only a limited time in each country. But the trip did leave me with vivid memories that help me with a reality check on what I read about the events Olen Steinhauer relates. Which has left me convinced that he knows the region well.

About the author

Olen Steinhauer. Image: The Week

Olen Steinhauer has written seven other spy novels in addition to the five books of the Yalta Boulevard cycle. According to his own author’s website, “He spent a year in Romania on a Fulbright grant, an experience that helped inspire his first five books. He now splits his time between Hungary and New York with his wife and daughter.”

Steinhauer was born in Baltimore in 1970, raised in Virginia, and educated at  Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Texas, Austin. He earned an MFA in creative writing at Emerson College in Boston.

Together, these five novels constitute a superb introduction to life in Central Europe during the half-century of Soviet domination. Nonfiction couldn’t possibly match the depth of feeling that emerges from these works. I’ve reviewed all five together at Olen Steinhauer’s brilliant Yalta Boulevard cycle set in Eastern Europe.

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