Harry is a Welshman in the late 1930's who wants to be a geologist. His mother is Christian, his father Communist and yearns for an active role in communism. Harry is promised his geology education dream if he accompanies his father to Russia. Once in Russia they find themselves lodging at the Lux, a hotel with other foreign communists and revolutionaries. Harry meets Rosa, a mysterious liaison who taunts Harry. Just like this period in history was haunting and confusing, the story is also. Harry meets other dark characters and struggles to sort out the truth. While I had trouble following some of the story, I felt like Harry in such a dark time. Who could you trust? Who's telling the truth? Where are people disappearing to? And...how do I get out?

The Champagne Wagon tells the story of the Hotel Lux during WWII through the eyes of Harry Spears. Even though he doesn't believe in communism, he decides to accompany his dad to Moscow to take care of him and to get a university education there.

What I found really interesting was to read what was like that period of time in Moscow, as most WWII historical fiction I have read mostly focus on France/Germany/the UK. The author makes a great job of setting the scene not only historically but also the tension build up: the feeling of not knowing who to trust and always being careful of what was said or done and how it would look like to others.

Another aspect I really enjoyed was the complexity of the characters, none was all good nor all bad. There were good people making bad decisions and bad people being unexpectedly kind. Which leads me to Rosa and the unconventional love story between her and Harry. Since this relationship is so central to the book I will not go too deep into it, but I will say that even after finishing the book I continued thinking about it.

This book at times made me sad in a way that only historical fiction can, yes the characters are fictional but they are based on real events and is heartbreaking to think that real people lived the same situations or similar ones. Trigger warnings: so much death, of young and old.

At times the story would slow down in pace, and I would think that a certain situation was irrelevant or not that important. But after finishing the book I came to the conclusion that even those were important to see the full picture. Of not only the grand events but also what ordinary days would look like.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in a different perspective of WWII or to fans of unconventional love stories.

Thank you NetGalley and Troubador Publishing for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. #TheChampagneWagon #NetGalley