Russian winter
By: Daphne Kalotay
Publisher: Arrow
Published: 2011
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 466
ISBN-13: 9780099553243
Subjects: Jewelry; Russians; Intellectual life; Fiction; Jewelry auctions; Private collections; Social conditions; Political purges
Description: Set in contemporary Boston and in Moscow after the Second World War, Russian Winter tells the story of Nina Revskaya, who rose through the ranks of the Bolshoi Ballet to become one of the Soviet Union's greatest ballerinas, until her defection in 1952 on the heels of a terrible betrayal. Now confined to a wheelchair, Nina finds herself confronted by her haunting past in the form of a letter from Grigori Slonim, a professor of foreign languages who believes he may be Nina's illegitimate son: he has enclosed a photograph of an amber pendant as evidence to support his claim. Prompted by the letter, Nina decides to auction her famed jewellery collection, including the matching amber earrings and bracelet she now feels compelled to divest, thus setting into motion a tale that weaves together a contemporary academic mystery with the long-ago tale of a group of friends whose ability to love and to create are tragically compromised by the repressions of the Stalinist regime.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
Table of contents: title: 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; title: Gersh, a brilliant composer, and the exquisite Vera, Nina's closest friend; title: became victims of Stalinist aggression. And it was in Russia that a terrible discovery incited a deadly act of betrayal; title: 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.