Animal Farm by George Orwell

My book group recently read this classic by George Orwell.

The reading of Animal Farm plunged me back to senior school. My English Lit class had this as one of our O-Level reads about the same time as we covered the Russian Revolution onwards period in the history O-Level Class. Our teacher for English Lit was an enthusiastic chap who really enabled us to see beyond a series of farm animals talking.

In many ways it gave a degree of concept to the political history of Russia at that time and the country it was to become. We truly have no idea of how frightening it must be to live in such a Country where there is no democracy. Where you work, live and believe what the regime tells you to, if you don't the consequences are harsh and so much more.

I wonder what prompted Orwell to write such a book. I know he spent time in India although he died here in England, but I would be interested to know what his catalyst was. Perhaps the stories of what was happening at the time simply prompted his creativity or was there more to it?

I was very surprised that the majority of the group had never read Animal Farm. Have you and did you enjoy it?

Enchantments by Kathryn Harrison

I have a number of historical eras that I seem to be drawn to when it comes to books. Among those are books set in the medieval era, World War I and II, and books set in Russia, especially those featuring the Romanov family.

It was therefore no surprise that I was interested in this book when I first heard of it. The main character of this book is Masha Rasputina, daughter of the infamous 'Mad Monk' Grigori Rasputin, which is an interesting choice of narrator that I have only seen used one other time in Robert Alexander's book Rasputin's Daughter.

This book hinges on the premise that Rasputin organised for his daughters, Masha and Varya, to be made wards of the Romanov family after his death. The book opens with the story of his death, although it is revisited several times through the book, and so the two girls are taken to live with the Tsar and Tsarina, their four daughters (collectively known as OTMA - Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia) and their son, Alexei, or Alyosha as he is known. It is a difficult time to be associated with the Romanovs though.  The revolution is underway, and they are in the process of being removed from the throne. Masha and Varya are basically kept prisoner with the family and it is in this restricted environment that a strong relationship develops between Masha and Alyosha, despite the fact that he is 14 years old and she is 18.

The tsarina believes that Masha has some of the same skills of her father in that she will be able to heal the tsarevich who suffers from hemophilia. While Masha feels the pressure that this assumption heaps on her, it is really Alyosha's mental well being that is aided by his relationship with Masha, especially after he has an accident that causes a hemophiliac episode that leaves him bedridden. Spending time without other family members around, Masha is able to share stories with Alyosha both of her own past, especially the story of how her father came to prominence, of Rasputin's death and of the boy's own family. They talk of how difficult the tsarina found the role that she had married into, the relationship with her critical mother in law, and dealing with the cloud of depression that hovered over her. Alyosha also showed a very practical understanding of the current political situation and the mistakes that his father had made in dealing with the revolutionaries, and he was pretty much convinced that they were all going to die, regardless of the way that his other family members refused to accept this as their future.

Some of these stories were lovely. For example, the two created a dazzlingly dream like sequence of the life of his parents after his mother moved to Russia following her marriage. Nicky (the tsar) would wrap up his much loved wife in the middle of the night and take her out in a white sled pulled by white horses, and show her the city of St Petersburg and the country around their home in a way that just wouldn't be allowed during the day.

There are many instances within the book where the language is beautiful, but I think that I missed having a linear storyline. Maybe because the story is so well known, the author felt some freedom to not need to keep to a strong plot. After all, the ending for the Romanovs was never going to be in doubt. The stories that were told moved backwards and forwards through time, including after the family's death, when Masha eventually gets hold of Alyosha's diary and he tells of life for the family in the 'house of special purpose' they were moved to before they were murdered. While a non linear story can work for me as a reader when it is done well, this was one of those occasions where I found it a distraction.

One of the plot points that were there seemed to be a kind of sexual awakening between Masha and Alyosha initially, and then, once Masha had left the family, with a young peasant girl.  I may be sticking my head in the sand a little, but I look at my 14 year old son and think that it would be just completely wrong for the kind of sexual awakening that it is described with an 18 year old girl. I do understand that being in close confines would possible allow this, but to be constantly guarded and still find a way... not sure.

Masha's story continues after she is separated from the Romanovs, when she is unhappily married and finds herself in various European countries with her charlatan of a husband. Eventually she finds work as a trick rider in a circus, and in due course trading on her father's name before her career is ended in a horrific animal attack. My overriding feeling for Masha by the end of the story was one of despair because she never really seemed to have come to a place of peace within herself, haunted in her dreams by the past and the Romanov family.

There were elements of this that had a magical realism kind of feeling. As an example, the tsarina Alexandra is described as having a cloud above her head that would only disappear when she was happy and this was something that others could see. There are also a couple of episodes where Masha looks inside a Faberge egg and sees a representation of the Romanov's favourite home and the people moving within it. Again, nice imagery, but not sure what it added to the story!

As I read through the other reviews on the blog tour, they are predominantly positive with a couple that were kind of mediocre. If you think that this might be a book that interests you then take a look at some of the other reviews by clicking on the tour details below. It wasn't a book that worked for me though.

Rating 2.5/5

Tour Details

Link to Tour Schedule: http://tlcbooktours.com/2013/01/kathryn-harrison-author-of-enchantments-on-tour-februarymarch-2013/
Kathryn Harrison's website

Synopsis

St. Petersburg, 1917. After Rasputin’s body is pulled from the icy waters of the Neva River, his eighteen-year-old daughter, Masha, is sent to live at the imperial palace with Tsar Nikolay and his family. Desperately hoping that Masha has inherited Rasputin’s healing powers, Tsarina Alexandra asks her to tend to her son, the headstrong prince Alyosha, who suffers from hemophilia. Soon after Masha arrives at the palace, the tsar is forced to abdicate, and the Bolsheviks place the royal family under house arrest. As Russia descends into civil war, Masha and Alyosha find solace in each other’s company. To escape the confinement of the palace, and to distract the prince from the pain she cannot heal, Masha tells him stories—some embellished and others entirely imagined—about Nikolay and Alexandra’s courtship, Rasputin’s exploits, and their wild and wonderful country, now on the brink of an irrevocable transformation. In the worlds of their imagination, the weak become strong, legend becomes fact, and a future that will never come to pass feels close at hand.

Why I Love Tiny History by Susan Sherman

Today we are pleased to welcome Susan Sherman to Historical Tapestry.

It’s a good thing I love history, because I write historical fiction. I’m not talking about the big events, although I write about those too, or at least how they affect my characters. No, what I love to write about is tiny history--intimate history, the little details that flesh out the lives of my characters; that define them and that lend color and authenticity to their story. Details such as how they cleaned their teeth or blacked a stove or made tea in a samovar are all important in setting the stage. I want to know about boot scrapers and straight-in-front corsets, what herbs to use if you want to cure pneumonia, (the dried white pulp of elderberry branches thrown on hot embers), and the little history of porcelain inhalers.

What I particularly like about research is how one detail leads to another and how eventually the larger picture is revealed by following these tiny threads. Since The Little Russian opens on a market day in a Jewish townlet on the Dnieper River, I researched Jewish market days called yarids. I learned how they were laid out, where the carts and stands were located: produce, dairy and fish in the middle, livestock on the perimeter. I learned that Jewish housewives in the Ukraine wore checkered shawls, while the muzhiki (peasants) wore blouses embroidered by their mothers or wives. The carts were pulled by horses, which meant manure, clouds of flies and the smell of horse sweat in the summer. Although, the muzhiki and Jews mistrusted each other, each used bits and pieces of the other’s language. The babble was in Yiddish, surzhyk and a mixture of the two, as Jew and peasant bargained to get the best price.

Since the market was always located in the town square, I researched them as well. I learned that the best Jewish businesses were located there, while the lesser ones were on the muddy side streets. The prominent citizens lived above their shops and sold only new items. Those lower on the social ladder lived above or in the back of their ramshackle shops and sold used items. From just these few facts life in the shtetls begins to take shape.

As a writer I’m always looking for tiny history in the larger events, the myriad of small dramas that lead to cataclysmic changes. For example, on February 17th 1917 in Petrograd, at the height of World War I, an argument breaks out in the gun carriage shop at the Putilov Steelworks resulting in the dismissal of several workers. The shop committee demands reinstatement along with better wages and hours. When management refuses the whole shop walks out. The next day other shops in the factory join in and soon there is a lockout. At the time, few people understood the consequences of this strike. There were hundreds of strikes going on in Petrograd that winter and this was just another one. But it wasn’t. It was Putilov, a massive factory that supplied armaments for the war. This was at a time when soldiers went into battle without guns or bullets.

Supplies were scarce at the front and in the cities. Women would typically line up in the middle of the night for potatoes, bread and kerosene. These were workers’ wives, the wives of tradesmen and young kitchen maids, who worked in the grand houses. Sometimes they would line up early in the evening and stand out all night in the wintry cold where the temperature would drop to forty below. Prices were sky high. A small bag of potatoes which cost 15 kopecks before the war, cost 1 ruble 20 kopecks, while butter, if you could get it, was also 1 ruble 20 kopecks. Boots cost 50 to 100 rubles. The price of wood was soaring. Even in the fashionable apartments the temperature rarely rose above freezing.

Let’s give one of these women a name. Let’s call her Olya Goloftaev. She lives in the Vyborg quarter, in a couple of rooms with her husband and three children. Her husband worked at Putilov until the lockout. It’s now February 23rd and she has been standing in line all night at the Filippov Bakery on Bolshoi Prospeckt. She has come to buy bread, because her children are hungry. She has waited all night in the cold, stamping her feet to keep them from going numb. When she finally gets to the front of the line she is told Khleba Nyet, no bread. At other shops on the street there are similar cries of Kerosina Nyet, no kerosene, Mooka Nyet, no flour, no candles, no sugar and no milk. Standing there in the snow, her hands and feet on the verge of frost bite, her children condemned to another day of hunger, Olya Goloftaev has had enough. She can’t live like this any longer. She won’t live like this. In desperation she cries out: Khle-e-eba!...bread. Khle-e-eba! Soon other women in the line join in. Khle-e-eba! Kle-e-eba! It’s Women Worker’s Day and just then a demonstration of female factory workers surges by. When they hear the women at the Filippov Bakery shouting for bread they join in… Khle-e-eba! Kle-e-eba! But this isn’t enough for Olya Goloftaev. In a rage she shouts out: Doloi voiny! Doloi tsarskoi monarkhii! Down with the war! Down with the Czarist Monarchy! The cry is picked up here and there. More women join in. Soon their men follow. Doloi voiny! Doloi tsarskoi monarkhii! Shouts are heard up and down Bolshoi Prospeckt. Doloi tsarskoi monarkhii! Down with the Czarist Monarchy! Russia teeters on the precipice. The revolution is born.

The Firebird by Susanna Kearsley

When we had to come up with our most anticipated read for 2013, it was not a hardship for me. As far back as July last year I knew that my most anticipated book for this year was going to be The Firebird by Susanna Kearsley.

I was so excited to get an advance copy, and loved reading the book too.

This week I have discussed the book with one of the bloggers who inspired me to start my blogging journey.

Rosario has the first part of the discussion and I have the final part at my blog.

If you need a really brief summary....we both loved it! Now to wait for the next Susanna Kearsley book to come out!

Debra Dean on Why I Love Researching and Writing About Russia

There is no logic to why my first two novels are both set in St. Petersburg. My husband says I was Russian in a former life, and that’s as good an explanation as any. But let me try another.

One night in 1995, I happened to catch a 3-part series on PBS about the Hermitage Museum. Part 2 was about the museum during the Siege of Leningrad. After Germany’s surprise attack and over the few weeks leading up to the siege, the museum staff packed up the contents of the museum —1.2 million items of art — and these were shipped out of the city to an undisclosed location so they’d be safe from Hitler if he broke through the lines. They emptied the museum but left the empty frames hanging on the walls as a pledge that the art would return. When the bombing started, the staff members and their families —some 2000 people — moved into the bomb shelters underneath the empty museum and lived there through the first winter of the war.

On this program, there was a remarkable story about a curator who, as the siege wore on, began giving tours of the empty museum. He would take people around and stand them in front of an empty frame and describe the painting that had hung inside the frame. Those who witnessed this said that he described the paintings in such detail and with such passion that they could almost see them. When I heard this, a chill ran up my spine. In my journal the next day, I wrote “This would make an amazing short story” and prophetically, in parentheses afterwards: “or a novel, but for the research.”

I neither speak nor read Russian. Prior to seeing this program, I had never even heard of the Siege of Leningrad. I knew next to nothing about Russia’s role in World War II. In fact, I had never set foot in the country. I was supremely unqualified to write the novel. If I had fully believed that anyone would ever publish it, I might never have had the nerve to attempt it. But I was captivated by what little I knew.

In a conversation I had a few months ago with Isabel Allende, she compared research to foreplay. “Writing the novel won’t take that long,” she said. “It’s like intercourse . . . but research is the interesting part.” This turns out to be especially true when one is reading about Russia. I won’t claim that Russians have cornered the market on amazing stories, but there is something in the culture that embraces the outsized, whether that excess is of courage or cruelty or pleasure. Perhaps in a country so vast, human emotion and experience must be sized accordingly.

Nearly ten years after I first watched that PBS program, I finally finished writing The Madonnas of Leningrad and turned my thoughts to the next book. In my research, I had come across a footnote about a woman named Xenia who lived in the same city, but two hundred years earlier when it was called St. Petersburg. She was married to a singer in the Imperial choir of Empress Elizabeth. When she was twenty-six, he died suddenly, and she went mad with grief. She began to give away everything she owned and . . . No, I told myself. Stop right there. Not Russia again. Once was hubris enough. But it was too late. Already, I was sneaking peaks into history, studying what little was known of Xenia and finding out about Russian court life: the Italian castrati, the language of fans, and Empress Elizabeth’s affinity for cross-dressing balls. Then imagining the state of mind that leads someone away from all that and down the hard path to sainthood.

Perhaps I have developed an affinity for this faraway place precisely because it is both strange and yet deeply, soulfully familiar. Perhaps my muse is Russian. If one is lucky enough to get swept away, perhaps it is best not to examine too closely the whys, and just surrender gratefully to the work.

_________________________________

Debra Dean’s bestselling debut novel, The Madonnas of Leningrad was a New York Times Editors’ Choice, a #1 Booksense Pick, a Booklist Top Ten Novel, and an American Library Association Notable Book of the Year. It has been published in twenty languages. Her collection of short stories, Confessions of a Falling Woman, won the Paterson Fiction Prize and a Florida Book Award.
Her new novel, The Mirrored World, comes out August 28.
A native of Seattle, she lives in Miami and teaches at Florida International University. Follow her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/debradeanauthor


Early Praise for The Mirrored World:

"With evocative, rich prose and deep emotional resonance, Debra Dean delivers a compelling and captivating story that touches the soul. Truly a wonderful read." Garth Stein, bestselling author of The Art of Racing in the Rain

“Dean’s novel grows more profound and affecting with every page.” Booklist

“For those familiar with the story of St. Xenia, this is a gratifying take on a compelling woman. For others, Dean’s vivid prose and deft pacing make for a quick and entertaining read.” Publishers Weekly

“Transporting readers to St. Petersburg during the reign of Catherine the Great, Dean brilliantly reconstructs and reimagines the life of St. Xenia, one of Russia’s most revered and mysterious holy figures, in a richly told and thought-provoking work of historical fiction that recounts the unlikely transformation of a young girl, a child of privilege, into a saint beloved by the poor.” Book Reporter You can read Marg's review of The Mirrored World here, and also enter into a giveaway of the book!

The Mirrored World by Debra Dean (includes international giveaway)

Synopsis

The critically acclaimed author of The Madonnas of Leningrad ("Elegant and poetic, the rare kind of book that you want to keep but you have to share" --Isabel Allende), Debra Dean returns with The Mirrored World, a breathtaking novel of love and madness set in 18th century Russia. Transporting readers to St. Petersburg during the reign of Catherine the Great, Dean brilliantly reconstructs and reimagines the life of St. Xenia, one of Russia's most revered and mysterious holy figures, in a richly told and thought-provoking work of historical fiction that recounts the unlikely transformation of a young girl, a child of privilege, into a saint beloved by the poor.

I often find myself fascinated by novels set in Russia. Whether it be the terrible siege of Leningrad or the final days of the Romanov family, I find it so interesting. I remember thinking a few years ago that it was kind of surprising that there is so little set in the world of Catherine the Great. Over the last 12 months or so, I have read a couple of books with that setting which goes some way towards rectifying that oversight, but I suspect that just like the country itself, Russian history is so vast that it would be difficult to read something about all the different eras!

This book starts in the upper classes of the Russian aristocracy in the latter days of the reign of Empress Elizabeth in the mid 1700's and through the reign of Catherine the Great. Whilst the reader is exposed to some of the key historical events and culture of that time, really the story is much narrower than you might otherwise expect. While other authors might be tempted to fill the pages with what are undoubtedly fascinating details about the glamourous life of the upper classes, Dean is careful to provide the reader with just enough to colour the book, but not so much that the reader loses track of exactly what it is that this book is about.

The book opens with three young women who are about to make their debut into society. Nadya, Xenia and Dasha are on the lookout for husbands. For Nadya, there is marriage to a much older man, Dasha is left for all intent and purpose on the shelf, and for Xenia there is an all consuming love match with Colonel Andrei Feodorovich Petrov. We see Xenia fall in love and then deal with the disappointments and tragedy that life brings her way through the eyes of her cousin and companion Dasha.

It is those tragedies which push Xenia out of what is perceived to be normal for a lady of her class and time and that prompts her to begin the acts of charity that she in the end was known for, and which in due course lead to her canonisation as a saint of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Whilst I did enjoy this book by the end, there is a pacing issue in my opinion. The book started really slowly especially as the author matches Nadya and Xenia off with their respective spouses, leaving Dasha to find her match much later in life. We are given small glimpses into the gift of foresight that Xenia displays but even then it was really only once she took the definitive steps towards becoming the religious fool after the tragedies of her life that I felt as though I was thoroughly engaged in the story. Given that the book is actually quite short the fact that at least the first half of it is quite slow means that there isn't enough time and space for this reader to recover from that slow beginning.

While I do understand why it would have been quite difficult to have Xenia as our narrator through the 'fool' section, I do wonder if the book would have worked better if we had of had more insight into Xenia as the main character rather than viewing her through the eyes of a third party, in this case her cousin Nadya. There were also sections in the book where the focus shifted from Xenia to Nadya's own relationships which was an interesting choice on the part of the author.

I have no doubt that when the author comes out with her next book (hopefully still set in Russia) I will still be interested in reading it because Dean is a good writer. She has a lovely voice and turn of phrase. This book just didn't meet my admittedly high expectations.

Thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for my copy of this book.

Rating 3.5/5

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Tour Details:

Tour Schedule
Debra Dean on Facebook

Also, be sure to check back in a couple of days when we will have a guest post from Debra Dean.

I am very pleased to be able to offer a giveaway copy of this book and it is and international giveaway!

Giveaway details:

- to participate, just leave a comment responding to the review. Don't forget to include your email address in your comment.
- one entry per household
- open internationally
- closes 9th September midnight GMT

A Countess Below Stairs by Eva Ibbotson

After the Russian revolution turns her world topsy-turvy, Anna, a young Russian Countess, has no choice but to flee to England. Penniless, Anna hides her aristocratic background and takes a job as servant in the household of the esteemed Westerholme family, armed only with an outdated housekeeping manual and sheer determination. 

Desperate to keep her past a secret, Anna is nearly overwhelmed by her new duties - not to mention her instant attraction to Rupert, the handsome Earl of Westerholme. To make matters worse, Rupert appears to be falling for her as well. As their attraction grows stronger, Anna finds it more and more difficult to keep her most dearly held secrets from unraveling. And then there's the small matter of Rupert's beautiful and nasty fiancée...

Recently, there have been several lists of books going around which aim to provide reading ideas for fans of Downton Abbey. I would like to suggest that this book may be a contender. Yes, Anna isn't really a servant, but she spend a lot of her time downstairs as such, and so you do get to see the contrast between the two sets of people who live in Mersham, both below and above stairs, as well as their interactions.

Anna, her brother Peter and their mother basically escape Russia with only a few possessions. Even their jewels that would have given them a comfortable lifestyle have disappeared along with one of their most trusted servants.

Going from a grand lifestyle to sharing the house of her former companion, Anna and her mother are determined to shield Peter from just how destitute they are. He goes off to school blissfully ignorant of their precarious financial situation and Anna finds a job so that she can help meet their living costs. It sounds unusual, but many Russian aristocrats fled from their homeland only to find themselves doing menial, low paying jobs just to keep a roof over their head and food on the table.

Anna is employed to be a maid at Mersham, a grand house owned by the Earl of Westerholme. While Anna is ill equipped to be a maid (she relies on an outdated housekeeping manual to learn how to perform common tasks and how she should interact with other servants) she quickly wins over the staff at the house through her willingness to work hard and her endlessly cheerful disposition. The butler and the housekeeper are fully aware that Anna is not who she appears to be, but they aren't exactly sure who she is.

The reason why the house needs additional staff is that the Earl of Westerholme is returning to the house for the first time since he was wounded during World War I, and he is bringing his new fiancee. Rupert was the younger son and he had planned a life of archaeological digs in exotic locations, but when his older brother died, Rupert is elevated to the title. He needs to marry and marry well. Muriel Hardwicke is beautiful and, more importantly, independently wealthy, bringing much needed funds to the estate. She does, however, bring her own ideas of how Mersham should be run, and who should be staffing the estate and it isn't long before she starts making unpopular changes.

Eva Ibbotson's books are often referred to YA novels. Whilst some of them started out that way others, like this one, have morphed into that classification more recently. I can see why because they are very clean reads and there is a fairy tale like quality to them, but this book was originally published as an adult novel and as such there is complexity lurking beneath the fairy tale including touching on issues like anti-semitism.

Whilst this book was a delight to read, there were some issues with it. It may be part of the fairy tale but the good characters were all very good and the bad guys were all very bad! In this case, the bad guys were the fiancee I mentioned earlier, Muriel Hardwicke, and her dodgy eugenics doctor (albeit with a self proclaimed honorific) Lightbody. Muriel is beautiful and wealthy but there was nothing else to redeem her - she was mean to small children and animals alike - and Lightbody was almost maniacal in his pursuit of the ideals of eugenics which is the idea that advocates the improvement of the human race through selective breeding (obviously a very simplified definition).

One of the strengths of the novel is the fully realised cast of secondary characters ranging from the cook Mrs Park (I recently posted about her creation of a swan for a Weekend Cooking post), the butler Proom to Anna's cousin Sergei, who is working as a chauffeur and has all the ladies swooning over him and not forgetting the snobbish dog Baskerville! I am sure that I am not the first reader to be captivated by young Ollie Byrne, a young lady from a neighbouring family whose sunny disposition and attitude more than make up for her perceived difficulties in life due to her disability.

You may notice that I haven't said much about Anna and Rupert and that is mainly because the book is somewhat predictable when it comes to this particular aspect of the story. There are times though when predictability and comfort are exactly what you want in a story. That predictability is more than made up for in the quality of the exchanges between the two characters. A glance here, the slightest touch, the awareness of each other's presence, knowing that there are shared interests and so much more build the relationship up in a gradual fashion until the characters in the novel learn exactly what the reader has known all along.

One of my favourite quotes in the book wasn't actually about Anna and Rupert at all, but instead was about Susie Rabinovitch, daughter of a local Jewish family and Tommy Byrne. I thought I had written it down so I could share it, but I can't find it. I guess that just gives me a good reason to revisit this book in due course, as I do think that it would stand up to a reread really well!

I keep a list of books that I want to read some day, and sometimes I even manage to remember to put down whose review I read that made me want to read it! For this book, I read Jennie's review 4 years ago and added it my list. Since then I have seen it mentioned quite a few times on other people's blogs and each time, I have thought that I must read this book!

It took a book club meeting to actually get around to reading it! Melbourne romance author Anne Gracie was a guest of the romance book club that I am a member of, even if I only attend semi-regularly. Her book choices were her latest release (understandably) and then this book! I am glad that I finally found the incentive required to read this lovely book.

I own at least three more books by this author that I haven't even opened once. Time to rectify that I think.

Historical Fictional Factual Actual…

Guest Post by Daphne Kalotay

When I began drafting my novel Russian Winter in 2003 or so, I knew I wanted my main protagonist, a Bolshoi ballerina living during the final years of Stalin’s reign, to defect at some point in the early 1950s. It was important to the timing of my plot that she leave before Stalin’s death, yet I struggled with the knowledge that in reality the era of dancer defections (think Nureyev, Makarova, Baryshnikov) did not begin until the early sixties.

So wedded was I to the idea of factual truth that I even snooped around on the Internet in search of some real-life version of my ballerina, thinking that if only I could find an actual Soviet dancer who escaped during those years (when Stalin’s grip was especially fierce and Russian borders particularly impenetrable) I would have much more confidence in my own flight of fancy. Doing so, I read about Violetta Elvin, the first fully-Soviet-trained Russian dancer to perform in the West—but she left in 1945, legally, as the wife of an Englishman. So that didn’t necessarily help my case.

Yet it was a reminder of the many possible and varied stories that exist in real life—and that, while of the utmost importance to me that I remain true to history, what I was writing was still fiction. So what if there had been no real-life ballerina defection in the early fifties. My ballerina would be the first!

I thought long and hard about how to whisk her out of the USSR. I knew that Bolshoi dancers often toured Soviet satellite countries, and after looking at a map of eastern Europe I settled on East Germany, since the Wall would not yet have been built and my own family knew people who had escaped via Berlin in those years. I read up on the city during that time, mapped everything out in my head, and planned my heroine’s escape.

I completed the manuscript in December of 2008. The following month, reading the New York Times, I spotted the following headline among the obituaries: Nora Kovach, Ballerina who Defected to the West. As my surname too is Hungarian, the name caught my eye, and I read that Kovach and her husband, dancing with the Budapest Opera Ballet in the late 1940s, were so talented that Galina Ulanova brought them to Leningrad to receive Russian training. In 1953, on tour in East Berlin, they noticed that the subway stopped close to their hotel and, taking a chance, hopped on and made their way to the English sector. In doing so, they were the first Soviet-trained ballet dancers to defect to the West.

At that early stage the term “defector” was not yet in currency; newspapers referred to Kovach and her husband as “Iron Curtain refugees.” To me, though, they remain remarkable in another way altogether: as one more example of truth being stranger than fiction, and of life imitating art imitating—unknowingly—life.

Book Description

A mysterious jewel holds the key to a life-changing secret, in this breathtaking tale of love and art, betrayal and redemption.
When she decides to auction her remarkable jewelry collection, Nina Revskaya, once a great star of the Bolshoi Ballet, believes she has finally drawn a curtain on her past. Instead, the former ballerina finds herself overwhelmed by memories of her homeland and of the events, both glorious and heartbreaking, that changed the course of her life half a century ago.

It was in Russia that she discovered the magic of the theater; that she fell in love with the poet Viktor Elsin; that she and her dearest companions—Gersh, a brilliant composer, and the exquisite Vera, Nina’s closest friend—became victims of Stalinist aggression. And it was in Russia that a terrible discovery incited a deadly act of betrayal—and an ingenious escape that led Nina to the West and eventually to Boston.

Nina has kept her secrets for half a lifetime. But two people will not let the past rest: Drew Brooks, an inquisitive young associate at a Boston auction house, and Grigori Solodin, a professor of Russian who believes that a unique set of jewels may hold the key to his own ambiguous past. Together these unlikely partners begin to unravel a mystery surrounding a love letter, a poem, and a necklace of unknown provenance, setting in motion a series of revelations that will have life-altering consequences for them all.

Interweaving past and present, Moscow and New England, the backstage tumult of the dance world and the transformative power of art, Daphne Kalotay’s luminous first novel—a literary page-turner of the highest order—captures the uncertainty and terror of individuals powerless to withstand the forces of history, while affirming that even in times of great strife, the human spirit reaches for beauty and grace, forgiveness and transcendence.

To read Marg's review of this book, click here.

Daphne Kalotay grew up in New Jersey, where her parents had relocated from Ontario; her mother is Canadian, her father is Hungarian. She attended Vassar College, majoring in psychology, before moving to Boston to attend Boston University's graduate program in fiction writing. She stayed on at BU to study with Saul Bellow as part of the University Professors program, where she earned a PhD in Modern and Contemporary literature, writing her dissertation on one of her favorite writers, Mavis Gallant. Her interview with Mavis Gallant can be found in the Paris Review's Writers-at-work series.

At Boston University, Daphne's stories won the school's Florence Engell Randall Fiction Prize and a Henfield Foundation Award. Her first book, the fiction collection Calamity and Other Stories, includes work first published in Agni, Good Housekeeping, The Literary Review, Missouri Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, and Prairie Schooner, and was short-listed for the Story Prize.

Daphne has taught literature and creative writing at Boston University, Skidmore College, and Middlebury College. She lives in the Boston area.

Imperial Highness by Evelyn Anthony

Imperial Highness is set in eighteenth-century imperial Russia and centres around the life of Catherine the Great and her Romanov descendants. Against this Czarist background, Evelyn Anthony vividly recreates the deformed and immature figure of Grand Duke Peter, to whom Catherine was first betrothed as a young German princess. And to whom she became a wife in name only. Alongside him, the dazzling person of Catherine herself is made  to live again: a woman who dreamed of leaving her name in the annals of world history even as a child.Whether as wife, mother, lover or future Empress of Russia, the role of Catherine Alexeievna is never without colour. And in Imperial Highness, Evelyn Anthony captures the personal fascination of her subject while also telling the story of Catherine's adulterous love affairs, and the struggle for the imperial throne.

Some times when I look at the recent and upcoming historical fiction releases I scan through looking for something other than yet another Tudor book, or this year in particular another book about Eleanor of Aquitaine and I wonder why there aren't books about some of the other fascinating characters in history. For example, I cannot for the life of me figure out why there are so few books around about the life of Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia.

Here we have a strong, beautiful, charming and beautiful ruler clad in fabulous clothes and jewellery who ruled her land for many years- everything that a queen is supposed to be really. She lived a very dramatic life filled with tension, conflict, lovers and scandal, led her country into a period of learning and culture and so much more.

I was glad to see that next year there is going to be a new book on Catherine, but in the mean time I was even happier to see someone reference this book on Goodreads. My own library doesn't have this book but fortunately I was able to borrow it through inter library loan. If you don't read any further in this review, the fact that I have already requested the next book in the trilogy, also through ILL, should tell you that I enjoyed this first book very much.

Young Princess Augusta Frederica was from a very noble, but very poor family in what is now modern day Poland. When she is summoned by the Empress Elizabeth of Russia everyone knows that it will likely lead to marriage, but for the young princess it is also a potential way out from underneath the harsh control of her mother and her very pious father.

Upon arrival in Russia, the young princess takes the court by storm, with one exception. Her future husband Peter, nephew and heir of the Empress Elizabeth, takes an instant dislike to the newcomer, and so a relationship that will be the source of much scandal over the years to come is formed. The Peter portrayed in the book is maniacal, immature, ill-formed and basically unsuitable for his future role as Emperor of Russia, particularly because of his very Prussian views and loyalties. For Elizabeth though, she sees no choice but to keep him as her heir, and initially she see the young princess that she has named Catherine as a possible positive influence on Peter. She could hardly have been more wrong.

However the Empress also had a somewhat changeable nature and it doesn't take much to upset her, so Catherine goes from being in favour to very much out of favour, especially given that the marriage between Catherine and Peter does not and can not provide the one thing that Elizabeth desperately needs from them - a legitimate heir.

One of the questions that I have thought about off and on over the years is one related to time travel - Where and when would you like to travel to if you could? While I always struggle to the where, I always know what I wouldn't want to be - a noble. Being highly born seems to have been quite treacherous in many countries and the imperial court of Russia was no exception. When there was no baby forthcoming, the Empress Elizabeth had the couple basically locked up together for years in the misguided hope that there may at last be a child. Time and again Catherine was bought before the aging Empress and feared for her life having offended the ruler in some way or another. Then again, I wouldn't really have wanted to end up as a serf either, so maybe I will just stay in the comfortable surroundings of here and now.

Years later, when finally freed from captivity, we see a much harder, much wiser Catherine, but also a woman who knows what she wants, and this includes various lovers! Catherine had used her time in captivity to educate herself and emerged having studied many of the great minds of the age. She was still young, still beautiful, intelligent and above all ambitious! And with her husband seemingly barely capable of controlling himself let alone an entire empire, the Catherine that we know from history emerges to take control. The book closes with Catherine coming to the throne, ably assisted by those loyal to her including her powerful lover who orchestrates the bloodless coup.

I wouldn't say that I am particularly knowledgeable about the life and times of Catherine the Great. Even just a quick look at a few websites after finishing the book seems to indicate that there are some discrepancies between the history portrayed in this book and what actually happened, but when all is said and done, this was a really entertaining read full of dramatic moments, court intrigue, passion and ambition, and this reader was left wanting more!

Please note that this book was also published under the title Rebel Princess, and is the first book in the Romanov trilogy.

Rating 4.5/5

Cross posted at Adventures of an Intrepid Reader

Russian Winter by Daphne Kalotay

A mysterious jewel holds the key to a life-changing secret, in this breathtaking tale of love and art, betrayal and redemption.

When she decides to auction her remarkable jewelry collection, Nina Revskaya, once a great star of the Bolshoi Ballet, believes she has finally drawn a curtain on her past. Instead, the former ballerina finds herself overwhelmed by memories of her homeland and of the events, both glorious and heartbreaking, that changed the course of her life half a century ago.

It was in Russia that she discovered the magic of the theater; that she fell in love with the poet Viktor Elsin; that she and her dearest companions—Gersh, a brilliant composer, and the exquisite Vera, Nina’s closest friend—became victims of Stalinist aggression. And it was in Russia that a terrible discovery incited a deadly act of betrayal—and an ingenious escape that led Nina to the West and eventually to Boston.

Nina has kept her secrets for half a lifetime. But two people will not let the past rest: Drew Brooks, an inquisitive young associate at a Boston auction house, and Grigori Solodin, a professor of Russian who believes that a unique set of jewels may hold the key to his own ambiguous past. Together these unlikely partners begin to unravel a mystery surrounding a love letter, a poem, and a necklace of unknown provenance, setting in motion a series of revelations that will have life-altering consequences for them all.

Interweaving past and present, Moscow and New England, the backstage tumult of the dance world and the transformative power of art, Daphne Kalotay’s luminous first novel—a literary page-turner of the highest order—captures the uncertainty and terror of individuals powerless to withstand the forces of history, while affirming that even in times of great strife, the human spirit reaches for beauty and grace, forgiveness and transcendence.

As soon as I first saw this book being talked about, I knew I wanted to read it. There is something about Russian history, particularly 20th century Russian history, that makes for compelling reading for me, and this book was no exception. I was however a bit concerned that my lack of knowledge about ballet might be problematic, but in the end, this was a minor issue. Most of the time, I was lost in the world that the author created in both Moscow and Boston.

The three main characters in this drama are Nina Revskaya, a former ballerina and star of the Bolshoi Ballet, Grigori Solodin, a professor of Russian, and Drew Brookes who works in a prestigious auction house.

The story begins when Nina, who is now wheelchair bound due to her physical afflictions gained through many years of dancing , decides to sell off many of the jewels that she has accumulated throughout her years as a famous ballerina and to donate the proceeds to the Boston ballet. Some of the jewels are gifts received since her defection, but there are others that she bought with her from Communist Russia, and it is really those that are the catalysts for the stories that we hear about Nina's life.

We first meet Nina as a young child who is taken to try out for the famous Moscow ballet school. From that time on, Nina lives and breathes ballet, determined to work her way up through the ranks of the competitive and prestigious Bolshoi Ballet.

When Nina meets poet Victor Elsin, she not only falls in love but also loses some of her political naivety. This is the second novel I have read in the last month that is set in Stalinist Russia (the other being The Betrayal by Helen Dunmore). Both books do a great job of showing readers, who in most cases can only begin to imagine, what it is like to be constantly on edge, worried about which ones of your neighbours or friends is informing on you, and knowing that it doesn't take much to lose a person in the notorious prisons of the time.
When Nina agrees to sell her jewels, the auction house sends Drew Brooks to try and garner more information from the famous ballerina - photos, anecdotes, anything that can be used in the auction catalogue. Nina, who has never really learnt to trust anyone, is resistant to sharing those memories, despite the fact that each day she (and the reader) is transported back in time to spend time with her friends: Gersh, a Jewish composer, and Vera and Polina who are also dancers. Drew is devoted to her work, often going above the call of duty, but she is not quite as successful in her private life, much to her mother's consternation.

The third strand of the story is that of Grigori Solodin, a professor of Russian at a prestigious university, and a man who has a strong professional interest in the poetry of Victor Elsin (Nina's husband), for reasons known initially only to him at the beginning of the book. When Grigori decides to also donate a  necklace that appears to match some of Nina's jewels, Brook is left with more questions than answers. Is the necklace part of the same set, but most importantly, what is the connection between Nina and Grigori?

At it's heart, Russian Winter is a story about reevaluating what you think you know about your life,. For Nina, this means reevaluating her life through the lens of her memories of her life with her husband and in the oppressive regime where no amount of success guaranteed safety. For Grigori, it is not only his past as a recent widower and his struggle to move on with his life, but also a search for identity, for belonging, for answers he has been searching for his whole life. And for Drew, questions about her grandfather's life, about her failed marriage, and her future happiness  - about looking back, but also about moving forward.

I love it when story lines are interwoven with each other, and going backwards and forwards in time, but it has to be done well. With all three of the characters looking back at their lives, there could have been capacity for Kalotay to lose some of those strands, but she managed to weave the various story lines together with aplomb.

I also really liked that between each chapter there was a description of some of the items that were going up for auction, and I especially liked it when we got to see how it was that Nina came to own that particular piece.

If I was to make a criticism of this novel, it would only be a small one, and that relates to the way the novel was wrapped up - it was too soon! There was one event that was telegraphed but that the reader didn't get to see, and I really wanted to experience that moment with the characters! The other thing is that, there was one particular relationship that felt too convenient. Without giving too much away, the chemistry was good between the characters, but I am not sure that I necessarily felt that the connection between them was as strong as it was implied to be.

In short, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it, especially if you enjoy reading about Russia, ballet, jewellery or if you are in the mood for a fascinating story that you can get lost in for a few hundred pages.

Once again, I am grateful that by agreeing to participate in a blog tour I was given that extra push to read a book that I would have eventually read, but it would have taken me ages to actually get to. I am almost reluctant to return Russian Winter to the library now!

To find out more about the author and her book, visit her website, her Facebook page, or the reading group guide.

Review crossposted at Adventures of an Intrepid Reader

The Kitchen Boy by Robert Alexander

Though the events are almost a century old, the imprisonment and execution of Tsar Nicholas and his family still hold an aura of mystery that fascinates. In haunting prose, Robert Alexander retells the story through the eyes of Leonka, on the kitchen boy to the Romanovs, who claims to be the last living witness to the family's brutal execution. Mysteriously spared by the Bolsheviks, the boy vanished into the bloody tides of the Russian Revolution. Now, through Alexander's conjuring, he reemerges to tell his story. What did the young boy see in those last days of the Imperial Family? Does he have answers to long-standing questions about secret letters smuggled to the Tsar, thirty-eight pounds of missing tsarist jewels, and why the bodies of two Romanov children are missing from the secret grave discovered in 1991?

I hesitated for a long time in picking up this book because I once read a description of Tsar Nicholas last moments and it so impressed me for its brutality that I always felt a bit depressed whenever I thought of reading this about it even in HF. But yesterday I was looking for something different to read and I thought it was time to give this one a chance.

I'm very glad that I did it because I think Alexander wrote an engaging story. Nothing is really new in the first chapters but he manages to make us care for the characters at the same time that he points out their flaws. We see them through the eyes of Leonka, the kitchen boy of the title. It is though him that the Imperial family receives notes from their supporters detailing a plan to release them. Since we know from the beginning how it all ends it's a bit sad to read of how much hope they had. The narrator is now an old man telling his granddaughter of the events of the past. He feels guilty that he did not manage to save them and he is the only witness of what really happened in the "House of Special Purpose" in that fateful night of July 17th 1918.

Leonka's narrative also gives a clue about why two of the children's bodies were missing from the family grave. When this book was published (2003) only three of the children's bodies had been found thus leading to stories about how two of them had maybe survived and been smuggled out of Russia. Alexander uses that in an interesting twist at the end of the book but in 2007 those two last bodies were finally identified in another grave thus proving that the whole family did die that night.

It is quite incredible the amount of research that Alexander must have needed to do to write such a story. There's a huge amount of information about Nicholas and Aleksandra's family and about their personalities and behaviour towards others. He doesn't shy away from concluding that Nicholas' rule was far from successful but it is difficult to accept that anyone should be condemned to the brutality the Romanovs faced. While it didn't much add to my knowledge of the period and people involved I found the fiction bits were interesting and well merged in the narrative. I think I might just have to try another on of his books in the future.

Grade: 4/5

Why I Love to Write About Russia

A couple of years ago, I discovered a book called The Russian Concubine by Kate Furnivall, mainly because I really, really liked the cover. Since then I have waited for each new book by this author to be released. I was therefore very pleased when Kate agreed to write a Why I Love post for us!



I love to write about Russia because I am part Russian. This may sound like a simple statement but for me it’s a very complicated one.

I’d always thought I was English through and through. It wasn’t until I was in my forties that I discovered that my grandmother, Valentina, was a White Russian. She had fled across Siberia with her two-year-old daughter, Lydia, hiding in forests by day and travelling only at night to escape the fury of the Bolsheviks after the Russian Revolution in 1917.

This came as a shock. In fact you could have knocked me down with a babushka. Russian? Me?

How do you cope with a discovery like that? I was forced to rethink myself. I devoured everything I could lay my hands on about Russia. Books, films, paintings, and of course travelling to the country itself to see it with my own eyes. I was mesmerised. By its fascinating history, its breath-taking geography, its amazing art and literature and by the passion of its people. Above all by its dramatic and often bloody politics that loomed so large over the world throughout the twentieth century.

Then my mother died and in an odd sort of way I felt I had inherited her story – and that I mustn’t waste it. I thought long and hard about her perilous journey as a child from Russia to China to India and finally to England, where she kept secret her past as a Russian refugee. I was hooked. It was too good a story to walk away from.

That’s how The Russian Concubine and Under a Blood Red Sky (The Red Scarf in USA) came to be written. I wanted to celebrate the Russianness of my ancestry. And now the publication of The Concubine’s Secret (The Girl From Junchow in USA) this summer takes me back to Moscow where my grandmother lived for part of her life.

The Russian Concubine was the start. Though set in 1928 China, the shadow of Russia drives the story, and when I’d finished it Under a Blood Red Sky grew in my mind. It is a love story set entirely in Russia in 1933, totally immersed in its culture, its conflicts and its communism. It explores how the powerful bonds of love, belief and friendship shape people’s lives. I took great pleasure in writing The Concubine’s Secret because it is the sequel to The Russian Concubine and continues the story of Lydia Ivanova in Russia. I felt a deep connection with this wilful Russian creature and wasn’t ready to let her go.

All three books study the concept of the outsider. Isolation and loneliness are themes that recur. As do characters who come from one country and live in another. A Russian who lives in China, a Dane who lives in Russia. Even a young woman who strives to become part of a rural village that sees her as an outsider. This, I realise, came from seeing my mother never quite fitting in, though at the time I didn’t understand why.

One of my problems with writing these books about Russia is that I adore doing the historical research. Imagine it. Sitting all day reading, preferably on the lawn in the shade of a beech tree, and calling it work. What could be more blissful? I make hundreds of pages of notes but only use a small fraction of them in the finished books. Yet I need them. The notes I make are part of the process. I have to feel so familiar with the Russian world I am about to create that I can move around in it with ease and confidence. I fill my head with every little detail of the time I’m exploring.

I am often asked how much of The Russian Concubine was based on my mother’s and grandmother’s lives. It was a decision I had to make – where to draw the line between fact and fiction. I didn’t actually agonise over this. I used the factual situation of my mother and grandmother as Russian refugees in one of the International Settlements in China – and even used their real names, Lydia and Valentina – but the whole story is pure fiction. As is the return to Russia in the sequel The Concubine’s Secret (The Girl From Junchow in USA). But I loved writing about a time in that country’s history when a whole new Russia was being formed under the hammer of communism. It was a momentous era.

As you can tell, I have found myself on a rollercoaster of addiction to all things Russian. My house is filling up with matryoshka dolls and my shelves with books by Tolstoy, Chekhov and Bulgakov. But I’m not ready to climb off this rollercoaster yet. I have one more Russian book to write – but this time set in the tsarist regime of the Romanovs. And then? Who knows? I can’t see a time when I won’t love to write about this magnificent country.

For me the exciting thing is that Russia has bought my books and they will soon be published there. My stories are going home.


Thanks to Kate for such an interesting piece. Kate's newest book is being issued under the title The Girl from Junchow on June 2 and under the title The Concubine's Secret in the UK on June 26.

Under a Blood Red Sky by Kate Furnivall

Davinsky Labour Camp, Siberia, 1933: Sofia Morozova knows she has to escape. All that sustains her through the bitter cold, and hard labour are the stories told by her friend Anna, beguiling tales of a charmed upbringing in Petrograd - and of Anna's fervent love for a passionate revolutionary, Vasily. So when Anna falls gravely ill, Sofia makes a promise to escape the camp and find Vasily. But Russia, gripped by the iron fist of Communism, is no longer the country of her friend's childhood. Sofia's perilous search takes her from industrial factories to remote villages, where she discovers a web of secrecy and lies - and an overwhelming love that threatens her promise to Anna. But time is running out. And time, Sofia knows, is something neither she nor Anna has.

Just over a year ago I read Kate Furnivall's first book, The Russian Concubine, and totally enjoyed it. When I heard that the author had a new book out I was hoping for a sequel to that book. I didn't get it, although it is coming this year, but having now read this book, I am not all that disappointed.

Where The Russian Concubine featured Russian characters who lived in China during the turbulent 1920's, this book is set in Russia itself. Now I love reading anything set in Russia, but this is the first time I remember reading anything set during the Soviet era of the 1930s, where the populace is ruled by fear of being arrested for the slightest misdemeanours or connections, and sent to the prison camps often never to return.

Our main character Sofia has been thrown into the prison camps of Siberia. It is there that she meets Anna, a young woman who has also been imprisoned due to her connections with the aristocracy. Each day the women have to perform back breaking manual labour, getting by any way they can. Sofia realises that her friend cannot take much more of this, so is determined to escape and find Anna's childhood friend Vasily. Whilst Anna is terrified for Sofia's safety, she also believes that Vasily will help her if he can.

Sofia finds her way to the village where they believe Vasily is now living, only to be drawn into the collective farming environment where the state determines that absurdly high quotas must be reached, and that no one, no matter how starving they are, gets to keep anything for themselves. She finds herself drawn both into the town and to the people of the town, but she knows that ultimately her aim must be to get back and save Anna, if she is still alive.

There Sofia meets Mikael, a prominent man, who is raising his son alone. As Sofia must take on a new identity and avoid the attention of the authorities, others within the village wrestle with the distinction between duty to each other and duty to the Motherland, with potentially disastrous consequences for all of them.

There are lots of events in this book that are highly improbable, but such is Furnivall's story telling skill, that it doesn't matter all that much. If you want a book filled with high drama with romantic and some minor paranormal elements , and that will keep you reading until the wee hours of the morning, then this may well be a book that you will enjoy.

If I had to choose between this book and The Russian Concubine for a first time Furnivall reader then the latter would win, but this is still a very enjoyable read, about a time and place that I haven't read much about.


**** Please note that in some countries around the world, this book is published under the title The Red Scarf.****

Rating: 4 out of 5

The Rose of Sebastopol by Katharine McMahon

Britain, 1854: the Crimean War captures the imagination of young men eager to do battle with the new enemy, Russia, but as winter closes in, the military hospitals fill with the sick and wounded. In defiance of Florence Nightingale, Rosa Barr - young, headstrong and beautiful - travels to the battlefields, determined to be useful. Her cousin, Mariella Lingwood, remains at home with the sewing and writes letters to her fiance, Henry, a doctor working within the shadow of the guns. But when Henry falls ill and Rosa's communications cease, Mariella finds herself drawn inexorably across the Black Sea, towards the war. Following the trail of the elusive and captivating Rosa, Mariella's journey takes her from the domestic restraint of Victorian London to the ravaged landscape of the Crimea, and prompts a reckless affair with a cavalry officer whose complex past is bound up with her ordered world, but reveals a well of unexpected strength and passion that may help her to survive against the desolation of war.

Last year I read The Alchemist's Daughter by this author and quite liked it, so when I saw that she had a new book coming out I was pleased. What made me more pleased was that the novel was set in a period which I hadn't really read much about about (The Crimean War) and seemed, from the blurb at least, to feature one of the more iconic female historical figures (Florence Nightingale). I say seemed to because in actuality, Florence Nightingale was a shadowy figure very much on the edges of the storyline.

What the book was actually about was two young women, Mariella Lingwood and Rosa Barr. There are two separate threads of storyline within the novel. One focuses on the relationship between the cousins from their initial meeting, to a summer vacation that goes terribly wrong, and how it is that Rosa came to be living with Mariella and her family. In some ways, some of this background seemed a little superfluous, although I guess that it was supposed to show us that Rosa had always been rebellious and headstrong.

The other thread of the storyline is initially a trip for Mariella to locate and care for her fiance, Henry Thewell, who is a doctor serving in the Crimea. He has however been invalided back to Italy, and Mariella and her companion are shocked to find him in a terrible condition. It transpires that he has crossed paths with Rosa whilst in the Crimea because she has gone off to become a nurse. After Mariella somewhat shockingly comes to realise that Henry is not exactly the man that she thought he was, she makes her way to the Crimea to try and search for Rosa because there has been no correspondence from her from some time. Rosa has left her supervised post, and appears to have made her own way to work more closely with the injured soldiers and it seems as though something very terrible may have happened to her.

The girls (or I should say young ladies) seem to have a somewhat obsessive preoccupation with each other. They are very different creatures, and yet love each other deeply - the main word that I could come up with to describe their relationship was besotted. Mariella is a the very model of a middle-class young lady. Her time is taken up with family, sewing and charitable causes, whereas Rosa is brash and impulsive, involved with people and causes that are not acceptable in polite society. Even Rosa's decision to go off and nurse is not quite above board. She initially was rejected by Miss Nightingale as a nurse, and so filled with determination that she would go, even if it is on her own, she has to find another way to get taken to the Crimea.

Where this novel is good is in the descriptions of the siege conditions and battles. The author does not sugar coat the horrors that accompanied warfare in the 1850s, let alone sanitise the suffering that was caused by cholera and Crimean fever that was rampant amongst the nurses and troops who had the misfortune to be posted to the siege at Sebastopol. She also did a great job at describing the indignation of the British people when they learnt that their young man were being sent to a place where there wasn't enough medical equipment to cover the most basic of war injuries, despite the promises made otherwise before the conflict began.

What didn't work so well for me was the never ending search for Rosa to try and determine what exactly happened for her. It seemed as though that part of the novel just dragged and dragged. Could she be here, maybe she's there. In the end, it was resolved but not until the last couple of pages of the novel.

Along the way, Mariella, who really is the main protagonist, learns a lot about herself, under going a physical and emotional journey that will leave her changed for the rest of her life.

This was a somewhat uneven attempt to portray a time that is not really all that commonly covered in historical fiction and yet is quite a fascinating time. This is one occasion where the two different time frames being told alternately within the narrative really didn't work all that well.

It is something of a surprise to me that such a romanticised figure like Florence Nightingale hasn't been given the HF treatment that I know of, or at least not all that recently.

Upcoming Release: The Romanov Bride by Robert Alexander

There are a number of books that I have been waiting for impatiently for the first three months of this year. Most of them have been released, just not in Australia, but finally one of them is coming to a library bookshelf near me!

As Russia races toward catastrophe, the Grand Duchess Elisavyeta is ensconced in the most lavish and magnificent court in the world, that of the mighty Romanovs. In the same city, but worlds apart, Pavel is a simple village man in search of a better life with his young bride, Shura. But when Shura is shot and killed by Tsarist soldiers during a peaceful political demonstration, the grief-stricken Pavel dedicates his life to overthrowing the Romanovs.

This is the fascinating true story of the beautiful and ill-fated Romanov grand duchess who gives up everything, and the peasant who determines her fate.

With the release date nearly upon us, author Robert Alexander has announced that he is going to be having a live webcast/bookclub event where he will be discussing his historical novels. You can see the details on his website. Once I work out what the time differences are (and ensure that they are not in the middle of the night here) I am definitely interested in attending one of the events!

I have loved looking reading both of Robert Alexander's previous historical novels, The Kitchen Boy and Rasputin's Daughter, and I can't wait to read this one either!

Rasputin's Daughter by Robert Alexander

With the same riveting historical narrative that made The Kitchen Boy a national bestseller, Robert Alexander returns to Russia for the harrowing tale of Rasputin's final days as told by his young and spirited daughter, Maria.

After the fury of the Russian Revolution has swept Nicholas and Alexandra from the throne of Imperial Russia, a special commission is set up to investigate the "dark forces" that caused the downfall of the House of Romanov. The focus, of course, turns to Grigori Rasputin, the notorious holy man and healer who was never far from the throne.

To discover the truth, the commission interrogates Maria Rasputin, the oldest of the Rasputin children, in the ransacked Winter Palace. There, she vividly recounts a politically tumultuous Russia where Rasputin's powerful influences over the Romanovs is unsettling to all levels of society, and the threats to his life are no secret. While vast conspiracies mount against her father, Maria must struggle with the discovery of her father's true nature - his unbridled carnal appetites, mysterious relationship with the Empress, rumours of involvement in secret religious cults - to save her father from his murderers. With clarity and courage, Maria shatters the myths of Rasputin's murder, revealing how she tried to save her father, who nearly killed Rasputin and, most importantly, the devious secrets his murderers still guard.

Using long lost files, Robert Alexander once again delivers an imaginative and compelling story: Rasputin's Daughter vividly brings to life one of history's most fascinating and legendary periods.

**This review was originally posted on my personal blog in April 2007**


I've been sitting here for ages trying to think what to say about this book, which really surprises me for two reasons. Firstly, I don't normally have that trouble, and secondly, I really enjoyed this book so it shouldn't be so hard.

The story starts with Maria Rasputin being picked up and taken to face the commission that has been set up to investigate what caused the fall of the House of Romanov. The irony of the fact that one of her father's favourite authors is the man charged with recording the evidence of what happened to Rasputin is not lost on Maria, but once she has agreed to cooperate she starts her story a week before his death.

For Maria, the events of the last week before her father's death were very revealing. She began to understand his true nature - including the nature of his relationship with the royal family, some of the people that he associated with, and many of his own personal demons. In many ways, however, this book was more about Maria coming to see her family through adult eyes - understanding that her father was not perfect in many ways, and also understanding that the events that were taking place around her were out of her control. It was also about her coming to know herself and facing the consequences of her own decisions as she finds herself falling for the mysterious young man who has appeared and then disappeared from her life a couple of times.

As with The Kitchen Boy, Robert Alexander manages to effectively convey the confusion and fears of characters living in a turbulent time in Russian history. In some ways, this book felt a little more cohesive than The Kitchen Boy, maybe because it was at it's very core a simpler story. I certainly felt as though I was going on the roller coaster ride of emotions as faced by Maria - from the fear for her father's life, to the excitement of falling in live, to the confusion as she comes to realise some of the facts about her father, to her courage as she faced the reality of what had happened to her father, and to her, and a very uncertain future.

A very entertaining read about a very interesting period in time!

Rating:4.5/5

Upcoming release: The Romanov Bride by Robert Alexander

Whenever Sarah from Reading the Past posts one of her lists of upcoming releases my TBR list inevitably grows, and her recent post was no exception.

One of the books that I was most interested to see something about was the upcoming Robert Alexander book, The Romanov Bride. I really enjoyed both The Kitchen Boy and Rasputin's Daughter, and so will definitely be picking this one up when it comes out in April.

As Russia races toward catastrophe, the Grand Duchess Elisavyeta is ensconced in the most lavish and magnificent court in the world, that of the mighty Romanovs. In the same city, but worlds apart, Pavel is a simple village man in search of a better life with his young bride, Shura. But when Shura is shot and killed by Tsarist soldiers during a peaceful political demonstration, the grief-stricken Pavel dedicates his life to overthrowing the Romanovs.

This is the fascinating true story of the beautiful and ill-fated Romanov grand duchess who gives up everything, and the peasant who determines her fate.

I do just have to say that Robert Alexander always has really great websites for his books! Click here to visit the website for this book, and then there are links to his other websites as well.

I'll put up a review for Rasputin's Daughter in the next couple of days. I didn't realise that I hadn't posted it yet!

The End of Sorrows: A Novel of the Siege of Leningrad in WWII by JV Love

A love that would not die . . .
A city that would not surrender . . .
A war that knew no bounds . . .

The date is June 21st, 1941, and Adolf Hitler is about to lead Germany into what would become one the bloodiest, most barbaric wars the world would ever know. His invasion plan, Operation Barbarossa, calls for talking the northern Russian city of Leningrad in a matter of weeks, but as the troops reach the outside border of the city, the Soviet resistance stiffens and a stalemate ensues. Hitler calls for continual bombardment of the city and cutting of all outside supplies. He boasts that the city will starve to death an the German forces will march into a ghost town.

Follow a cast of memorable characters - some real-to-life - as they struggle through one of the most horrific human dramas ever created. For 900 days, the citizens and soldiers of Leningrad, Russia endured one of the worst sieges in the history of mankind. Some would find the inner strength that would make them a light unto the darkness. Others would descend into madness. Read their stories, and explore for yourself just what is The End of Sorrows.

I am sure that I should start every review about a book set in Leningrad during WWII with a disclaimer. I first became aware of the events that occurred in this city when I read the fabulous The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons. Since then I have read another two books which were either partially or completely set in the besieged city, and whilst each of them have added something to my knowledge or my feeling for this terrifying time, none of them have come close to the magic of that book. This book adds yet more to my knowledge of these events.

The story follows several main characters as they try to live through the siege, either within the city, or fighting to try and save the city, and the story alternates between the various characters, giving us snapshots of their physical and mental states.

The most compelling of the stories is of the relationship between Katya and Felix. Katya is the daughter of a high ranking party official and Felix is a young Jewish man. Inseparable since meeting, Felix and Katya are determined to marry, not knowing that her father is making it difficult to do so because of the fact that Felix is Jewish. Felix's best mate is Dima, son of a decorated war hero - a man for whom the war is a chance to prove himself to himself, and his father, once and for all. Other characters include Katya's neighbour Petya who descends into madness as the city descends into starvation, her young cousin Igor whom she must try and keep alive, and a group of partisan fighters, and many others. There were, in my opinion, too many characters who took up too much of the narrative.

The author is not afraid of showing how desperate life became both on the front and in the city, and covers some of the events that I already knew about, such as the bombing of the trains that were carrying children out of the besieged city and the eating of wallpaper glue as food became incredibly scarce. This was, however, the first book which has included any episodes relating to the actions of the Russian partisans who helped the Soviet Army fight against the massive German army that was camped at the edge of Leningrad for so long. The time that Felix and Dima spent with the partisans was a very interesting section of the book.

At times the narrative is somewhat meandering and occasionally gets bogged down by religious contemplation about how could God desert the people of Leningrad, and indeed about His very existence. There is most certainly a place for such contemplation because of the very situation that they found themselves in, but particularly towards the end of the novel there was too much of it in my opinion.

I was interested to read at the end of the novel some choices that the author made for the story. I am not sure that they are the same choices I would have made were they my characters, but it did have the effect of making the story less romanticised than some of the other novels I have read on this setting.

One note to the publishers - there were numerous occasions during the book where the typing abruptly stopped and then started on a new line half way through a sentence, so perhaps some stricter editing would not have gone astray.

The stories themselves are interesting, but as I said before, needed to be somewhat streamlined, but at the nucleus of the book is a good story, with interesting characters, in an unbelievable, but true situation.