Rosie, escaped from Russia with her mother after her father and sister were murdered, is a cryptology student at Oxford. With a new English name and an English fiancé, all she wants is to understand and move on from her past. When her mother dies, Rosie takes a job with a Russian historian, Alexey Ivanov, which leads her back to Moscow. What she uncovers during her work is a devastating family history that spans the 1917 revolution, the siege of Leningrad, and Stalin’s purges, leading up to glasnost and perestroika. This story of betrayal, revenge, and redemption shows that answers don’t always come from the past, but you can’t run from who you are and expect to uncover the truth.

I’ve always been a bit of a Russophile, to the point of choosing Russian language and literature as one of my majors in college. I find the complex history of Russia so intriguing and this book captured so many things about Russian culture that fascinate me. I love the call back to folk stories (though the author invented them for the purposes of this novel) and how they were tied to the characters in the book. The book also felt like a love letter to some other Russian literature greats, specifically Doctor Zhivago and Anna Karenina. The plot was so compelling and had me turning the pages to get down to the truth of what really happened! I wish there was a tad more focus on historical events in addition to the characters’ personal stories in the past timeline, but I still really enjoyed this book. Definitely recommend this great historical fiction.