As Nazi tanks roll toward Leningrad in August 1941, an unmarried nineteen-year-old ballerina gives birth to twin girls in the soon-to-be besieged city. Bereft of hope, the dancer—once a rising star at the Kirov—slashes her wrists, but her babies survive, rescued by the devoted friend who arrives just too late to save their mother. The friend, too, is a dancer with the Kirov, and her tutelage and self-sacrifice ensure that the girls, Maya and Natasha, become students at the Vaganova Academy after the Siege of Leningrad is broken.
There are two things I love most about this book, which caused me to tear through it in the space of two evenings. First, it starts in a time and place that are almost a trope in historical fiction now (World War II in all its manifestations), then goes in a different direction: to the ballet world of the 1950s and the Cold War. Second, the relationship between the twin sisters, Maya and Natasha, and the unacknowledged burden they face because of their mother's suicide is rich and well developed and utterly compelling.
"Engrossing historical fiction...A touching, thrilling heartbreak for any reader.” --USA Today
This stunning debut novel set in the fascinating world of Cold War Soviet ballet follows the fates of twin sisters whose bond is competitive, complicated, but never broken.
Maya and Natasha are twin sisters born in the midst of the Siege of Leningrad in 1941 and immediately abandoned by their mother, a prima ballerina at the Kirov Ballet who would rather die than not dance. Taken in by their mother's best friend at the Kirov, the girls are raised to be dancers themselves. The Vaganova Ballet Academy—and the totalitarian…
This thoroughly engrossing tale about the lasting bond between siblings—both human and divine—follows the attempts of Clementine (Clemmie) Attridge, a budding Egyptologist living in 1890s England, to rectify a mistake made by her father that has placed the entire family in jeopardy. What I particularly love about this book is the author’s ability to take the timeworn image of the mummy’s curse and peel it back, layer by layer, to reveal the true source of the supposed curse: human failings such as arrogance, insensivity, avarice, and more. In the process, she raises questions that still have present relevance—specifically the theft and destruction of other people’s heritages, especially but not exclusively for personal gain.
It’s not easy to approach such a well-known character as Eleanor of Aquitaine from a new angle. This follow-up to the author’s debut, Pilgrimage, counterposes Queen Eleanor’s experiences during the Second Crusade to the life of Lady Aude, the half-Armenian daughter of a crusader who has spent the last thirty or so years of her life in Europe but now seeks to return to her birthplace in the Holy Land.
What I love about this book is the unfamiliar setting, brought vividly to life, the relationship between Eleanor and Aude, and the complex character of Aude herself, who alternates among ruthless honesty, less than admirable behavior, indomitability, and charm while shining a spotlight on medieval life in all its complexity.
When Lady Aude encounters Eleanor of Aquitaine on the wharfs of Antioch, the queen is on crusade but Aude is returning home. The daughter of a French crusader and an Armenian noble, Aude grew up on an estate outside of Jerusalem. To earn her place in the queen's entourage, Aude begins to tell her own story, how violence and an ill-fated marriage forced her to leave the land of her birth and how she vowed to return almost three decades later. Across those years, from the Holy Land to Flanders and beyond, she witnessed political upheaval and only slowly began…
Haunted by memories of a cruel and distant father, Anna Kolycheva learned to fend off trouble by turning herself into a model of silent obedience, until the exile of her husband-to-be and her forced participation in Tsar Ivan the Terrible’s first bride show showed the sixteen-year-old Russian noblewoman that she would need more than compliance to attain her goals. When her betrothed arrives to claim her, she elopes without hesitation. But her cousin Igor is determined to wed Anna to the man of his choice, and he will stop at nothing to ensure success.
Yuri Vorontsov has watched his life go up in smoke over the last nine months. After narrowly escaping execution, he should rejoice in his good fortune—or so everyone tells him. Yet no royal declaration can turn a warrior into a monk overnight, especially in the face of a cunning enemy set on stealing the woman he loves. As flames engulf Moscow, Yuri throws caution to the winds to defend his bride and his heritage, even at the risk of defying the irascible tsar.
