Russian Winter

Description

When she decides to auction her remarkable jewellery collection, Nina Revskaya, once a great star of the Bolshoi Ballet, believes she has drawn a curtain on her past. Instead she finds herself over-whelmed by memories of her homeland and of the events that changed the course of her life half a century before. It was in Russia that she discovered the magic of the theatre; that she fell in love with the poet Viktor Elsin; that she and her dearest companions, Gersh, a dangerously irreverent composer, and the exquisite Vera became victims of Stalinist aggression. And it was in Russia where a terrible discovery led to a deadly act of betrayal. Now living in Boston, Nina has hidden her dark secrets for half a lifetime. But two people will not let the past rest: Drew Brooks, an in-quisitive young associate director at the Boston auction house; and Grigori Solodin, a Russian professor who believes that a unique set of amber jewels may hold the key to his own ambiguous past. Together, these unlikely partners find themselves unravelling a literary mystery whose answers will hold life-changing consequences for them all.

Promotion info

An evocative story of passion, envy and betrayal set against the backdrop of the tumultuous and dangerous Soviet years, intertwined with the mystery and intrigue of a present day narrative driving out secrets of a tragic past.

Author description

Daphne Kalotay is the author of Calamity and Other Stories, published by Doubleday in 2005 to much critical acclaim. She has an MA from Boston University's Creative Writing Program and a PhD in Modern and Contemporary Literature. Her work has appeared in The Paris Review, Good Housekeeping and many literary magazines, and she has received fellowships from the Christopher Isherwood Foundation, the Fondation de La Napoule, the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, Yaddo and the MacDowell Colony; she is a recipient of the W.K. Rose Fellowship in the Creative Arts from Vassar College. Daphne currently teaches in the Masters in Creative Writing programme at Boston University.