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Controlled Conversations
In 1982 Soviet-controlled Poland—a time and place of suspicion and mistrust—when geopolitical forces and violent men descend upon her little town of Zygmuntowo, Emilia must decide if she is willing to risk prison or worse for self-respect and for her unexpected love.
A telephone station switchboard operator is ordered to monitor the calls she connects and Emilia overhears a mysterious coded conversation. It continues to distract her, but not as much as the growing realization that she is falling in unsanctioned love with her best friend Kalina. Meanwhile, outside the city of Frombork, Antek, a shipyard engineer and a Solidarity labor union treasurer, escapes from prison and works to recover the union’s money, a task which in time leads him to Emilia’s town. In the metropolitan city of Gdańsk, Roman, a secret police major, wants the money for himself and dreams of his own escape and the magical beaches of Rio de Janeiro.
As the only daughter of a local Communist Party apparatchik, Emilia has enjoyed a sheltered life, but with the advent of martial law, her mother’s influence can no longer shield her. She faces choices she never expected to make when she discovers her best friend’s and lover’s involvement with the resistance. With new allies and enemies in town, the time to choose a side is now.
In his debut novel, Karol Lagodzki What separates people who transcend their fear and take risks for the sake of change from the rest of us? The answer is up to the readers.
A telephone station switchboard operator is ordered to monitor the calls she connects and Emilia overhears a mysterious coded conversation. It continues to distract her, but not as much as the growing realization that she is falling in unsanctioned love with her best friend Kalina. Meanwhile, outside the city of Frombork, Antek, a shipyard engineer and a Solidarity labor union treasurer, escapes from prison and works to recover the union’s money, a task which in time leads him to Emilia’s town. In the metropolitan city of Gdańsk, Roman, a secret police major, wants the money for himself and dreams of his own escape and the magical beaches of Rio de Janeiro.
As the only daughter of a local Communist Party apparatchik, Emilia has enjoyed a sheltered life, but with the advent of martial law, her mother’s influence can no longer shield her. She faces choices she never expected to make when she discovers her best friend’s and lover’s involvement with the resistance. With new allies and enemies in town, the time to choose a side is now.
In his debut novel, Karol Lagodzki What separates people who transcend their fear and take risks for the sake of change from the rest of us? The answer is up to the readers.
- GenresHistoricalLGBT
228 pages, Paperback
Published August 20, 2024
5 people are currently reading
68 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
June 10, 2024
An okayish read that wasn't as ambitious as I'd hoped.
The story maintained an air of tension throughout, with an ominous feeling of impending doom. However, the climax was disappointing; it felt anticlimactic and failed to raise the stakes significantly.
The narrative is told from multiple points of view, but I didn't form a strong connection with any of the characters. The story shifted focus from one character to another, with previous characters fading into the background once their perspective was no longer in focus. This palimpsest approach meant that just as I began to connect with one character, another's point of view would take over, erasing the connection I had formed. The only character who made a notable impact was the villain, Roman. The others left minimal impressions.
The title, "Controlled Conversations," suggests that the phone operator would play a significant role in monitoring conversations and reporting suspicious activities, implying that resistance would be a major theme. However, the story primarily focused on the romantic relationships between characters, making the title feel misleading. If I had adjusted my expectations to focus solely on the relationship aspect, I might have rated it higher. The blurb suggested more action than was delivered.
Given the emphasis on relationships, I expected more depth in that aspect. Instead, we are simply told that the characters love each other, followed by intimate scenes, without seeing the buildup or any reflections on how they fell in love. We are expected to accept these relationships without any substantial development.
Despite my complaints, I was thoroughly engaged until the end. The author did justice to the Polish setting, so I have no complaints in that regard.
2.5 stars! (Rounding up to 3 because I was engrossed throughout.)
Special thanks to NetGalley, Karol Lagodzki, and Sunbury Press for the DRC of this book. Much appreciated!
The story maintained an air of tension throughout, with an ominous feeling of impending doom. However, the climax was disappointing; it felt anticlimactic and failed to raise the stakes significantly.
The narrative is told from multiple points of view, but I didn't form a strong connection with any of the characters. The story shifted focus from one character to another, with previous characters fading into the background once their perspective was no longer in focus. This palimpsest approach meant that just as I began to connect with one character, another's point of view would take over, erasing the connection I had formed. The only character who made a notable impact was the villain, Roman. The others left minimal impressions.
The title, "Controlled Conversations," suggests that the phone operator would play a significant role in monitoring conversations and reporting suspicious activities, implying that resistance would be a major theme. However, the story primarily focused on the romantic relationships between characters, making the title feel misleading. If I had adjusted my expectations to focus solely on the relationship aspect, I might have rated it higher. The blurb suggested more action than was delivered.
Given the emphasis on relationships, I expected more depth in that aspect. Instead, we are simply told that the characters love each other, followed by intimate scenes, without seeing the buildup or any reflections on how they fell in love. We are expected to accept these relationships without any substantial development.
Despite my complaints, I was thoroughly engaged until the end. The author did justice to the Polish setting, so I have no complaints in that regard.
2.5 stars! (Rounding up to 3 because I was engrossed throughout.)
Special thanks to NetGalley, Karol Lagodzki, and Sunbury Press for the DRC of this book. Much appreciated!
September 3, 2024
I fell completely for Emilia; I am embarrassed
for myself, and so admire her incredible
personal strength. I learned more from this
exceptional debut novel than anything I read
this year.
We all just deserve life’s small treats, and we
must remember that having to struggle and
fight was not all that long ago - many are still
fighting…
My thanks to Milford House Press, an imprint of
Sunberry Press, for the download copy of this book
for review purposes.
for myself, and so admire her incredible
personal strength. I learned more from this
exceptional debut novel than anything I read
this year.
We all just deserve life’s small treats, and we
must remember that having to struggle and
fight was not all that long ago - many are still
fighting…
My thanks to Milford House Press, an imprint of
Sunberry Press, for the download copy of this book
for review purposes.
August 15, 2024
This is a beautifully written book. The author writes as a non-native speaker, and I found myself wondering if some of his unique and stunning sentences were a product of blending two languages.
Looking forward to more books from this author.
Looking forward to more books from this author.
August 7, 2024
I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Controlled Conversations by Karol Lagodzki is a third person multi-POV literary historical set in Poland during the Iron Curtain. Emilia is a switchboard operating harboring several secrets, Antek has recently escaped from prison and got a request for a divorce from his wife, and Roman is a secret police major hunting Antek down. All three of their stories are connected by twenty thousand American dollars and what they want to do with it.
There is a lot of story and a lot of different characters to keep track of, but it doesn't feel overwhelming. We do switch back and forth between POVs, but Lagodzki grouped the POVs together in a way that slowly revealed how they are all connected and made the story's style feel accessible. Emilia's POVs tended to be my favorite as hers carried an air of hopefulness and looking towards the future. Roman’s, however, are more about how his humanity seemed to slowly leave him
The book doesn't hold back on depicting how difficult life was in Poland during the Iron Curtain. Emilia mentions how many people keep their real thoughts to themselves even at home for fear of their children ratting them out to the Soviet party whereas Emilia would be more in danger of her mother being the one to rat Emilia out. Twenty thousand USD would be enough to get Emilia and Kalina, her childhood friend and maybe something more, to Japan and help them start a new life away from the Soviet Union. Roman’s POV, meanwhile, often involves terrorizing citizens until he gets what he wants, including threatening to kill Antek’s pregnant ex-girlfriend until she gave him Antek's location.
A lot of the names are spelt the traditional Polish way instead of Anglicizing them, which I appreciate and respect. While I am not familiar with how the Polish alphabet sounds, I can always Google it to figure it out and Anglicizing names doesn't always produce the correct sounds much like transferring English names into another language doesn't always produce a perfect 1-to-1. It serves to add a layer of authenticity and pushback against the global domination of English.
Content warning for depictions of sexual assault and fatphobia
I would recommend this to readers looking for narratives about life behind the Iron Curtain, fans of historicals with literary prose, and those looking for a multi-POV historical that takes place in a more recent time period
Controlled Conversations by Karol Lagodzki is a third person multi-POV literary historical set in Poland during the Iron Curtain. Emilia is a switchboard operating harboring several secrets, Antek has recently escaped from prison and got a request for a divorce from his wife, and Roman is a secret police major hunting Antek down. All three of their stories are connected by twenty thousand American dollars and what they want to do with it.
There is a lot of story and a lot of different characters to keep track of, but it doesn't feel overwhelming. We do switch back and forth between POVs, but Lagodzki grouped the POVs together in a way that slowly revealed how they are all connected and made the story's style feel accessible. Emilia's POVs tended to be my favorite as hers carried an air of hopefulness and looking towards the future. Roman’s, however, are more about how his humanity seemed to slowly leave him
The book doesn't hold back on depicting how difficult life was in Poland during the Iron Curtain. Emilia mentions how many people keep their real thoughts to themselves even at home for fear of their children ratting them out to the Soviet party whereas Emilia would be more in danger of her mother being the one to rat Emilia out. Twenty thousand USD would be enough to get Emilia and Kalina, her childhood friend and maybe something more, to Japan and help them start a new life away from the Soviet Union. Roman’s POV, meanwhile, often involves terrorizing citizens until he gets what he wants, including threatening to kill Antek’s pregnant ex-girlfriend until she gave him Antek's location.
A lot of the names are spelt the traditional Polish way instead of Anglicizing them, which I appreciate and respect. While I am not familiar with how the Polish alphabet sounds, I can always Google it to figure it out and Anglicizing names doesn't always produce the correct sounds much like transferring English names into another language doesn't always produce a perfect 1-to-1. It serves to add a layer of authenticity and pushback against the global domination of English.
Content warning for depictions of sexual assault and fatphobia
I would recommend this to readers looking for narratives about life behind the Iron Curtain, fans of historicals with literary prose, and those looking for a multi-POV historical that takes place in a more recent time period
August 13, 2024
Controlled Conversations took me a few chapters to get into, but once I was hooked, I found it easy to love this book.
Set in Soviet-controlled Poland in 1982, the story introduces several characters, each navigating their own yet interconnected stories. Emilia, a switchboard operator, inadvertently overhears a mysterious phone call and starts suspecting they are coded messages hinting at something secretive going on. Antek, a shipyard worker and the treasurer of Solidarity, embarks on a task that could jeopardize his life. Roman, a secret police major desperate to leave Poland, is willing to do the unthinkable to achieve his dream. Together with his assistant, Zenon, Roman is determined to track down Antek who has the key to Roman's future. Each character has unique motivations that inform their actions throughout the book.
A bit of background knowledge about the Solidarity Union in Poland enhances the understanding and enjoyment of the book, but it is not necessary. This story beautifully represents the essence of life on the brink of resistance and revolution, both politically and personally. Legodzki masterfully captures the atmosphere of distrust, leaving me gasping as characters' motivations and backgrounds were unveiled.
The book has multiple points of view, switching between the main characters, and includes both present-day narratives and flashbacks. Initially, this structure can be a bit confusing, but it ultimately contributes to the story's richness. Lagodzki's almost poetic writing style transforms the book into a vivid experience rather than just reading a story. The narrative also spans several genres, blending a thrilling spy story with young adult vibes.
I highly recommend Controlled Conversations, especially for fans of historical fiction.
Thank you to NetGalley and Sunbury Press, Inc. for an advanced copy of Controlled Conversations.
Set in Soviet-controlled Poland in 1982, the story introduces several characters, each navigating their own yet interconnected stories. Emilia, a switchboard operator, inadvertently overhears a mysterious phone call and starts suspecting they are coded messages hinting at something secretive going on. Antek, a shipyard worker and the treasurer of Solidarity, embarks on a task that could jeopardize his life. Roman, a secret police major desperate to leave Poland, is willing to do the unthinkable to achieve his dream. Together with his assistant, Zenon, Roman is determined to track down Antek who has the key to Roman's future. Each character has unique motivations that inform their actions throughout the book.
A bit of background knowledge about the Solidarity Union in Poland enhances the understanding and enjoyment of the book, but it is not necessary. This story beautifully represents the essence of life on the brink of resistance and revolution, both politically and personally. Legodzki masterfully captures the atmosphere of distrust, leaving me gasping as characters' motivations and backgrounds were unveiled.
The book has multiple points of view, switching between the main characters, and includes both present-day narratives and flashbacks. Initially, this structure can be a bit confusing, but it ultimately contributes to the story's richness. Lagodzki's almost poetic writing style transforms the book into a vivid experience rather than just reading a story. The narrative also spans several genres, blending a thrilling spy story with young adult vibes.
I highly recommend Controlled Conversations, especially for fans of historical fiction.
Thank you to NetGalley and Sunbury Press, Inc. for an advanced copy of Controlled Conversations.
June 23, 2024
It was an okay read, but it didn’t fully meet my expectations. I was drawn in by the premise of a suspenseful story centered around a phone operator, expecting more action and intrigue based on phone calls. However, the narrative strayed from this focus, missing opportunities for suspense.
While the different character plots were interlinked, it was hard to connect with them. The character development felt shallow, making it difficult to invest emotionally in their stories. It would have been interesting to have shorter novellas concentrating on each character, which could have provided more depth and led up to this book.
Overall, the story had potential but fell short in delivering the thrilling, character-driven experience I had hoped for.
Thank you to the NetGallery and Karol Lagodzki for allowing me to read this book ahead of its release.
While the different character plots were interlinked, it was hard to connect with them. The character development felt shallow, making it difficult to invest emotionally in their stories. It would have been interesting to have shorter novellas concentrating on each character, which could have provided more depth and led up to this book.
Overall, the story had potential but fell short in delivering the thrilling, character-driven experience I had hoped for.
Thank you to the NetGallery and Karol Lagodzki for allowing me to read this book ahead of its release.
August 17, 2024
This was a really interesting book. It moved a little slowly at first, but that's/c of all the Polish names and words I stumbled over. It felt a bit like unraveling a cold war cat and mouse story. A telephone operator listening in to these coded messages that made no sense, man looking for a large sum of hidden American dollars and the cops, whose side they're on, you don't know, looking for this man.
The flow moved nicely, revealing bits of the various characters backstories and current stories in a way that explained what part they played in this dangerous world. I found all the characters to be likeable and the ending was nice. It pulled the story together and had a happy feel to it.
I was given this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
The flow moved nicely, revealing bits of the various characters backstories and current stories in a way that explained what part they played in this dangerous world. I found all the characters to be likeable and the ending was nice. It pulled the story together and had a happy feel to it.
I was given this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
August 27, 2024
I'm sad to say I did not love this book. It had promise, but the execution was lacking.
This was a very confusing read, and I felt like I was missing context for the majority of the book. The idea and plot seemed really interesting, but the actual execution was so strange. The way the storylines developed felt really disjointed, and all the characters' introductions and subsequent developments were so rushed.
All that said though, there was still something about it that kept me reading instead of DNFing or rating it lower even. I was intrigued despite myself, and it was at various points entertaining. I just think the writing and tuning of the story could've been improved.
Thanks to NetGalley and Milford Press for the eARC! All opinions are my own.
This was a very confusing read, and I felt like I was missing context for the majority of the book. The idea and plot seemed really interesting, but the actual execution was so strange. The way the storylines developed felt really disjointed, and all the characters' introductions and subsequent developments were so rushed.
All that said though, there was still something about it that kept me reading instead of DNFing or rating it lower even. I was intrigued despite myself, and it was at various points entertaining. I just think the writing and tuning of the story could've been improved.
Thanks to NetGalley and Milford Press for the eARC! All opinions are my own.
September 27, 2024
This was a pretty good, short but suspenseful book. It was hard to keep the different POVs straight at first, but I liked seeing everyone eventually come together and everyone getting what they deserved. Emilia’s plot was probably my favorite part of the story, and I really like how…unremarkable her sexuality was. Her and Kalina being in love, getting together, and everyone being accepting of it was really nice.
Massive content warnings for sexual assault by a parent (in the past as a child and in the present) and rape/attempted rape as well.
Thanks to NetGalley and Miford House Press for the digital ARC, all opinions are my own.
Massive content warnings for sexual assault by a parent (in the past as a child and in the present) and rape/attempted rape as well.
Thanks to NetGalley and Miford House Press for the digital ARC, all opinions are my own.
October 6, 2024
This is a brilliant debut for author Karol Lagodzki. While admittedly I’m not well versed in the time or place that this book is set, I think this novel provided for an accessible view into that world. The chapters are short too, which makes the book a quick read despite the heavier subject matter. If you’re a fan of the movie “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” I think you’ll like this book. Not the same but similar vibes for sure!
October 10, 2024
Very good book. The plot drew me in completely--its a cold war thriller with small-time players and stakes that micro rather then macro. The writing is excellent and the author gets deep deep into the characters. Highly recommended.
May 4, 2025
A debut novel for sure- he does write more like a short story author. However, the change of viewpoints of each character, even though it is all third person, allows for some good insights into their thoughts. a unique story that takes place in 1980s communist Poland.
October 9, 2025
A timely, well-written story that will keep you turning pages! The characters are richly drawn, and the plot culminates in a stunning way. Lagodzki’s characters are seeking ways to be free, and a place they can be their true selves. Read this book!
August 21, 2024
A beautiful story that will grab you by the heart
I defy anyone to read this book and not be touched by its love for humanity, riveted by its plot, and enchanted by its words.
I defy anyone to read this book and not be touched by its love for humanity, riveted by its plot, and enchanted by its words.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews