Little Apple

Five former Austrian prisoners of war, released by the Russians in 1918, are pledged to avenge an air force officer whom Captain Selyukov, the Camp Commandant, had placed in solitary confinement and allowed to die when he became sick. One of the group, Lieutenant Vittorin, has a more personal reason. At a time when a gentleman’s honour was of great importance, Selyukov had deliberately insulted him, simply for the satisfaction of doing so.

It is difficult to categorise a book which is neither a conventional thriller nor a legitimate history. There is certainly plenty of action and very convincing descriptions of post-war Austria and the chaos of the Russian civil war between the Reds and the Whites. However, as one reads the story of the ‘little apple’ rolling along throughout Europe, seemingly with no control over its actions, it gives the impression of being above all a kind of morality tale.

Four of the ex-prisoners feel that the death of their air force friend at the hands of Selyukov gives them a legitimate reason for pledging to pursue him. However, once they are back home in Vienna and taking up their lives once again, they see the folly of living in the past and continuing to seek revenge.

Vittorin’s motives, on the other hand, are different. He seems to have been less concerned with the death of his companion and more with the personal insult he had suffered at the hands of Selyukov. Unlike the other four, he is totally incapable of forgetting and his preoccupation with the Russian becomes obsessive. 

In deciding to go off on his revenge quest, he seems quite unaware of the consequences of his actions on others. He knows that his father is likely to be living on a minimum pension shortly but seems to feel no responsibility towards him. Nor does he consider his sister who is trying to avoid marriage to an older man whom she does not love, but whom she may feel she has to marry in order to support her father. Above all, he shows no compunction in leaving a woman who loves him and who had remained faithful to him during his years as a prisoner of war. 

It turns out that his efforts to track down Selyukov take much longer than he had imagined and his journeys from place to place bring him into contact with others. The often disastrous effects that his compulsive behaviour has on them as he seeks his man make up the essence of the novel. The reader cannot help but be fascinated as he waits to see whether Vittorin will eventually locate Selyukov and, if he does, what form his revenge will take. In a story that contains so many twists it is not unexpected that the dénouement should bring yet another.