"What do you know know about art?" It's a question that Volk is asked repeatedly in Brent Ghelfi's debut novel Volk's Game. Just what is Volk's game? The reader is never quite sure. The title character dabbles in black market goods, illegal gambling, prostitution, and the seamier (and extremely profitable) side of the Moscow underground. Yet, he's an intimate (and perhaps employee) of a Russian official, identified only as "The General."
The story follows Volk and his partner and love, Valya, as they are talked into trying to steal a DaVinci painting that's been recently "discovered," cleverly hidden behind another work. Such "discoveries" are not unheard of in Russia, after centuries of various regimes' appropriating foreign, "conquered" works as their own. Such paintings even occasionally find their way to a discrete overseas market when the new Russian republic's coffers are running low.
"Leda and the Swan"
This DaVinci work, "Leda and the Swan," was supposedly a part of a secret art purchase from the 16th century French royal family. The providence is murky, but the beauty of the painting is not. Everyone who sees "Leda" is captivated by her and yearns to possess her, even the hard-nosed Volk. The difficulty is that the painting is currently stored beneath the well-guarded Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. Can Volk break into the museum, appropriate the painting, and escape to Moscow? If he can, then which of his "masters" will get the painting? How will he appease the other? It's a task even the skilled Volk will find challenging and one that will exact a high price from all of its players.
"The Wolf"
Alexei Vokovoy, nicknamed "Volk" or "wolf" in English, is a complex character, whose loyalties meld to fit the current situation. A pragmatist, he is a battle-hardened veteran of the Chechnean war and that country's abusive orphanages on one hand and a rough-edged sentimentalist when confronted with the love of a woman, compassion for a young orphan, or the timeless beauty of a DaVinci painting on the other.
Volk's Game is an interesting--and very readable--conundrum. It's violent and, at times, bloody, yet it makes the reader stop and reflect. Ghelfi tells the reader just enough about Volk and Valya to tell a good story, yet leave him eager for the sequel. For the excitement of a classic Russian spy novel, yet with a modern twist, pick up Volk's Game.
About Brent Ghelfi
Brent Ghelfi is a former clerk for the U.S. Court of Appeals, a former partner in a Phoenix law firm, and a recent visitor to Russia. He lives in Phoenix with his wife and their two sons. He is currently working on a sequel to Volk's Game.
