Publisher: Harper Perennial
First published: September 7, 2010
Paperback: 466 pages
ISBN: 9780061962172
Price: $14.99
On the library stacks: Adult Fiction
Daphne Kalotay has created this beautiful novel with prima-ballerinas in Moscow during the 1950s, a Boston auction house with exquisite jewels, mysteries from the past, and love stories for the ages.
Nina Revskaya is an aged ballerina who escaped the Bolshoi Ballet and defected to the West during the Cold War. Now living in Boston, she decides to put her jewelry up for auction, not realizing how the memories associated with those pieces will force her to confront her haunting past in Stalinist Russia.
Drew Brooks is an associate at the auction house, struggling to find herself after her divorce. She has put the idea of true love to rest, and instead finds joy in her life's work. Together with Grigori Solodin, a professor who translates Russian literature, they unlock the secrets of the jewels.
I love novels that transport me to a different time and place, and then alternate that experience with a modern-day storyline that interconnects in unexpected ways. I lost myself in the worlds of dance, literature, music, art, and languages that Kalotay explores. This is a rich novel that I found myself immersed in from the first page. This book would make a great book club discussion and a reading group guide is available.
Daphne Kalotay can be found online:
The paperback version of this book has been released today! Please visit the other tour stops over the next few weeks.
5 comments:
I love books that transport me to another time and place as well. This book sounds great.
I loved studying Soviet history in college so I'm always on the lookout for books set in that time/place - looks like this will be a good one!
Can't wait to read this so we can discuss!
I really liked this one - like, really really. Usually more "modern" novels drive me nuts but this did transport me, just like you said :)
Great review.
I'm so bummed I missed this tour. I need to track down a copy. It sounds so good. I took Russian in college and I've always been fascinated by the country, the history and the people.
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