Karl Bazinger, a sophisticated Wehrmacht officer, is living the high-life in Occupied Paris. With his French girlfriend, his glamorous dinner companions (Coco Chanel, Jean Cocteau, and a woman suspected of being a spy for the British), and his open disdain for the Nazis, he begins to attract the attention of the SS, and is drawn into further trouble when he receives a suspicious visit from Hans, his best friend from Saxony, who may be involved in Resistance activities. To lower his profile, Karl requests a transfer to the Eastern front, and sets off on a journey into a very different experience of war.

As a terrible fate for Hans is sealed, Karl is posted to Kiev, where he discovers the extent of the Nazi atrocities in the region and begins to suffer from a mysterious nervous ailment. In the novel's final twist, the ministrations of an "enemy" doctor — a beautiful, stoic Russian woman with her own painful history — will heal Karl and offer him a vital connection to hope and goodness in the midst of hell.

The Year Is '42 communicates the enormity of war with immediacy and intelligence, capturing the myriad gradations of moral position that war demands of those who serve as well as those who resist. Urbane, subtle, elegiac, it is a small masterpiece.

"Karl Bazinger, a Wehrmacht officer stationed in occupied Paris on a 'deluxe tourist trip, paid for by the Fhrer,' is sheltered from the cruelty of WWII at the opening of Ukrainian playwright and novelist Bielski's latest book. Surrounding himself with bohemian luminaries and eccentrics, the seductive and sophisticated Bazinger spends much of his time enjoying France, women and the occasional literary debate. Life becomes complicated when Karl's musings on the dubiousness of the German victory attract the attention of the SS, and grows even more so with a visit from Hans Bielenberg, an old friend likely involved in resistance activities. After a short trip home to Germany, a transfer to Kiev exposes Karl to the harsh realities of Hitler's regime; his visits to an underground Russian doctor, Katia, allow him a brief respite from the war's ravages. Bielski does a remarkable job of capturing the atmosphere in Paris, Saxony and Kiev during the war, but a plethora of characters and backstories muddle the plot and draw attention, and interest, away from Karl and his conflicted allegiance to his fatherland. The result can be frustrating, but Bielski's effort is intriguing, and this is a good book for readers interested in a more intimate view of WWII." Publishers Weekly (Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"A dense, elusive, wholly original and moving novel that portrays history as the spymaster of us all."

--John le Carré

"To my knowledge, this is the first book by Nella Bielski to be published

in the U.S. There's a temptation to come to books such as this and assume

it's a first book — a tentative, if heralded one, at that. To read THE YEAR

IS '42 is to read a voice so assured it can carry the cataclysmic happenings

of World War II — here German officers in Occupied Paris and then the

Eastern Front — with a calm, clear narrative voice. It's a voice that's

water-still, clear enough that you can see the bottom. And the bottom it is:

men who wage war, even as they imagine some other life. And everyone else

who tries to live through it. This is a book with beautiful heartbreak.

What's lost is lost. Who is gone is gone. Books like this are especially

important to read here in this country now. The gracious hand of John

Berger, here as translator, is also evident. If this is Ms. Bielski's first

book here, may it not be her last."

-Rick Simonson, Elliott Bay Book Co.