Random Acts of Heroic Love - Danny Scheinmann

Two tales of love

Two stories of loss

One great emotional journey…

1992: Leo Deakin wakes up in hospital somewhere in South America. His girlfriend Eleni is dead and Leo doesn’t know where he is or how she died. He blames himself for the tragedy and is sucked into a spiral of despair. But Leo is about to discover something that will change his life for ever.

1917: Moritz Daniecki has survived fighting in the Great War. But at what cost? Abandoned in the Siberian wilderness, he is determined to return to his beloved Lotte, the memory of whose single kiss has sustained him throughout the war. What lies before him is a terrifying journey over the Russian Steppes. If he ever makes it, will she still be waiting?

This dual-time narrative follows the stories of two very different men who can't let go of the women they love. In 1992, Leo Deakin loses his girlfriend in a bus accident in South America and struggles to get over her death, wondering how he could ever possibly move on. He sees Eleni in everything he does, yet her continued presence in his life causes him to fall into a spiral of depression. Meanwhile, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire on the outbreak of WWI, Moritz Daniecki leaves his beloved Lotte to fight the Russians. He ends up captured and placed in a Siberian POW camp, and it will take him years to trek back to Lotte after he escapes. The memory of her brief kiss keeps him going through the cold winter and the harsh life of Revolution-era Russia, but will she still be waiting for him when he makes it back to their village? And what is the link between Leo and Moritz's tales of enduring love?

I've had my eye on this book for a while but I never got around to reading it until I was lent a copy. I really enjoyed reading about the "other side" of WWI. While everyone knows about what went on in Britain, the USA, Germany and even France, Russia and other Eastern European countries often get forgotten. Moritz's story was tough and truly heartbreaking, as he devoted himself to travelling across Russia despite not knowing whether Lotte would wait for him. The descriptions of the state of the Austro-Hungarian army and the POW camp were rather horrific, and not for the faint-hearted! There were some scenes that made me feel a bit sick, but you truly understand what the soldiers experienced. Even those who have never studied this period in history will be able to appreciate this book as it gives you a flavour of the Eastern front of WWI without expecting any prior knowledge. I also loved the way that Moritz's story was told, in his death-bed speech to his oldest son during WWII. I could almost hear his voice as I read the story.

Leo's story, on the other hand, was told in third-person and I felt rather detached from it. While I was intrigued with the premise - a man waking up in a hospital in South America and having no idea how he got there - the mystery of his accident and Eleni's death was solved very quickly, and I found it difficult to connect with him. I sympathised with his plight at having lost his love, but the way that he dealt with it didn't sit well with me. Despite claiming that he was mourning Eleni, he got involved with a couple of women who he didn't care about and it made me feel rather uncomfortable. I explained the situation to my fiancee and even he thought it made Leo an unlikable character. Leo also makes friends with Roberto, a physics lecturer, and makes connections between physics and love. These were kind of interesting, but didn't mean a lot to an Arts student like myself! I was happy with the conclusion to Leo's story and I warmed up to him a lot more in the last few chapters, but overall he was difficult to connect with.

This novel is worth reading just for Moritz's story - it truly is a tale of heroic love. Leo's is heartbreaking in its own way, even if I didn't always agree with his actions. Don't read this if you're feeling sad, as the plight of Moritz and Leo will probably just make you feel worse! I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys dual-time narratives (I suspected the connection early on but it's still worth reading to uncover it!), unusual tales of love or historical fiction. And it's completely possible to read this without knowing anything about WWI, the Russian Revolution, South America or physics! I would caution that some of the war details are a bit graphic, and cursing and crude references to sex are made at several points throughout the novel. 7/10