Set In Melbourne 1954, Ruth is convinced that the mysterious Russian living next door is the infamous Eva Petrov
In 1954, Melbourne is still reeling from WWII, the Cold War sees suspicions running high and the threat of communism and spies are imagined in every shadow. 15 year old Jewish Ruth is trying to navigate her own path, despite her strict upbringing and the past that haunts her family. A path that she wishes could include her first love, 17 year old Patrick. But the rich, Catholic boy is strictly off limits.
When a mysterious woman moves in next door in the dead of night, Ruth becomes convinced that she is none other than Eva or Evdokia Petrov, a Soviet spy and wife of famous Russian defector, Vladimir Petrov.
Excerpt
Just after midnight, I was woken by feet clambering up the rear staircase. Curious, I crept down the passage through the kitchen onto the wooden landing. From here I could look into next door’s windows.
A light went on and a blind shot up.
I saw two women and two men, their faces half hidden by hats, their heads together as if deep in conversation.
They must have felt someone eyeing them, because the blind came back down.
Half frozen and shivering, I dashed back down the passage, jumped into bed, and burrowed under the blankets. Ten minutes later, I heard feet clatter downstairs. My room, an enclosed balcony overlooking Brighton Road, has louvered windows. I sat up to peer between slits, and watched two men, but only one woman, climb into a car with darkened windows.
The car took off down the street.
This late, there was hardly any traffic. Above the outline of distant buildings, a quarter-moon slid behind a cloud. A cat skulking along the pavement receded into the shadows.
I slid back under the blankets and snuggled into my pillow. Next time my eyes opened, it was time to get up and dressed for school.
Professional Reviews
review by Anastasia Gonis
Young Adult Realist Fiction 14 + June release
That Stranger Next Door by Goldie Alexander (Clan Destine Press)
PB RRP $18.00 EBook $
ISBN 9780992492434
EBook ISBN 9780992492441
Reviewed by Anastasia Gonis
It’s 1954. The Petrov scandal has made the news and the threat of communism casts shadows everywhere. A stranger moves into the empty flat above the Milk Bar next to Ruth and her family. The secrecy leads Ruth to believe that the woman is Eva Petrov. A strong friendship is formed between the two.
Ruth, highly intelligent and a scholarship student, is struggling to follow her own path in life regardless of the rigid restrictions imposed upon her by her family. She has dreams of becoming a doctor, this unacceptable by Ruth’s mother as being too costly (no HECS back then)” and ‘Who will want to marry a girl who looks at naked men?’ . The idea of any kind of friendship/relationship with anyone of a different culture or religion is also forbidden. This becomes an issue for Ruth when she meets and falls in love with Catholic boy Patrick.
Goldie Alexander has created a riveting story with many layers to it. It is told through two points of view by the main characters. This approach gives a close and intimate look into their thoughts which adds mystery and tension, and keeps the pages turning.
The reader is immediately pulled into the era and setting. Its strong sense of place and time, descriptive historical happenings, social and political climate, class distinctions, and post-war prejudices, are plaited into a Romeo and Juliet romance that threads its way through the pages.
Perhaps Goldie Alexander’s best work yet, this book will appeal to a wide range of readers, between the ages of 14-104, due to the many themes and issues covered. It should be noted that there are scenes with sexual content.
review by Di Bates
That Stranger Next Door by Goldie Alexander
Reviewed by Dianne Bates. 2014
A fictional story, That Stranger Next Door, is nonetheless rooted in actual events that happened in Australia in the 1950s. Ruth Cohen is a fifteen-year old girl growing up in a Melbourne Jewish home she shares with her parents, grandfather Zeida and younger brother Leon. Like girls her age, Ruth has dreams for her future, but unlike her peers (and despite her mother’s ambitions for her), she doesn’t want to become a wife and mother when she grows up; she aspires to a career as a doctor. A scholarship student, she’s certainly clever enough. However, when she meets Patrick O’Sullivan from a wealthy Catholic family, her ambitions fly out of the window.
Invited to Patrick’s home where she meets his overbearing and unlikeable father, she hears political talk at the dinner table which is at odds with the politics of her parents who own a milk bar. Politics and events in Australia thread through this story; the world is in the grips of the Cold War, McCarthyism is rife in America and Australia is reeling from the shock of the Petrov spy affair. Ruth’s father, a former communist, is concerned that ASIO is investigating him, while Patrick’s father works for the right-wing politician, Bob Santamaria.
The story begins with Ruth wakening one night to a mystery; someone has stealthily moved into the flat opposite her home. When she discovers that the new tenant is Eva who never pulls back the curtains or comes outdoors, her active, intelligent mind creates a scenario; she comes to believe that Eva is Evdokia Petrov, the defector. A relationship develops between the two with Eva helping Ruth conceal her secret meetings with Patrick and acting as a romantic sounding board. Meanwhile, Ruth suspects that strangers in black cars near her home are spying on Eva – or are they spying on her father, believing he is a communist spy?
In That Stranger Next Door, Alexander has captured a genuine feel of the period in the way people spoke then, the way they dressed and behaved. Her characters feel real, too, from her depiction of the conflicted Ruth to Patrick’s intelligent, unfulfilled and depressed mother. Patrick’s moodiness and his treatment of Ruth after she loses her virginity to him are very well handled. The politics of the time and the cultural depiction of two diverse families – the Jewish Cohens and the Catholic O’Sullivans – ring true and is a great way of introducing teenager readers to a critical period in Australia’s history.
The story is told from two points of view with Ruth narrating most chapters but Eva telling her story, too – of being born in the Ukraine, forced to become part of the army of slave labour in a German munitions’ factory and eventually coming to Australia. Why Eva is in hiding is not revealed until late in the book. Is she Mrs Petrov? Or is there another reason for the mystery that surrounds her? The last chapter happens fourteen years later when the reader learns of what has become of Ruth and answers whether or not her ambitions were realised.
That Stranger Next Door is an engrossing read; the historical context is woven throughout the fiction to provide a rich background to the lives of two vastly different families with their respective beliefs and problems. Recommended for readers 14+ years.
Publisher: www.clandestinepress.com.w20w 2014w.clandestinepress.com.au
ISBN 9780992492434 (eBook) 978-0-9924924-4-1
Elli Housdon
The Stranger Next Door
Goldie Alexander’s novel is set in a rather overlooked period in Australian history: the post-war era of the 1950s and the outset of the Cold War. Early in the story, we learn that the stranger of the title could be Eva Petrov, the victim of what came to be known as the Petrov Affair. Teenage readers who are unfamiliar with this twentieth century event will discover political values and religious issues that are very different from today’s ideals and philosophies. Teenagers themselves, however, have not changed. Heroine, Ruth is perplexed and challenged by the same sort of issues as her contemporary readers, the opposite sex being the obvious one. Ruth is a Jewish girl but her love interest, Patrick, is a from a prominent Melbourne Catholic family. It’s like Romeo and Juliet all over again – without the bloodshed and the poison, but with plenty of drama.
Elli Housden
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