Born behind the Iron Curtain at the end of World War II, Sasha dreams of fleeing her provincial life to pursue a career as an actress, despite her family’s objections. She is haunted by the ghost of her uncle Kolya, an artist still missing in action years after the war’s end, and when she finds Kolya’s war journal in her childhood home, she learns the shocking truth behind the lies that masked Stalin’s brutality. Kolya’s stories guide and fuel her through acting school. After graduation she begins acting in Leningrad, where she is reunited with Andrei, her childhood love who is now a Communist Party apparatchik who censors her work. As she learns more secrets from the past, Sasha must determine if her dreams are worth the sacrifice. 

I love Russian history and culture, so I was excited when I saw this book on Kindle Unlimited and loved that it read also available to listen! The writing was beautiful and poetic. I really loved Gorokhova’s ability to humanize the history of the Soviet Union and put into perspective what many people living there personally experienced after the end of WWII. The passages from Kolya’s journal were so powerful and sobering and I loved how they were interwoven throughout the novel. The story was heartbreaking yet hopeful and the ending was so beautiful. This book seemed so realistic, and after learning about the author’s background I wonder how much was inspired by her personal experiences. A wonderful debut novel that I definitely recommend for lovers of historical fiction!