Guest Review: Russian Winter
Is there anything better than recommending a book you adore, and finding out you've made a great match? Doubtful! This year, I've been book-talking Daphne Kalotay's luminous debut Russian Winter, and nothing makes me happier than hearing back from excited librarians afterwards. Check out this guest blog from Juliann M. Janovicz, Head of Adult Services at the Winnetka-Northfield Public Library District. Juli writes:
I managed to miss the prepublication publicity for this novel and the advanced reading copy from Baker & Taylor. I was unaware of the book until the @harperlibrary reps talked about the title at an Early Word galley chat (*ewgc) on Twitter. I’m happy I stopped in to chat because they sent me a copy of Russian Winter and tipped me off to a great title to recommend for the fall. I couldn’t put it down.
Russian Winter provides a view of the life of the intellectual elite in the Soviet Union under Stalin. Focusing on the life of a prima ballerina in the Bolshoi Ballet, Kalotay offers a glimpse into the privileged world of the dancers, poets and musicians who created art within the Soviet regime despite fear of punishment for straying outside of the prescribed code of political behavior. The author makes this historical period come alive by weaving this past into the present.
Kalotay’s main character is retired ballerina Nina Revskaya who fled Soviet Russia and settled in the United States. Nearing eighty and living in Boston, Nina has decided to auction her substantial jewelry collection with the proceeds benefiting the Boston Ballet Foundation. The auction catalog descriptions for each piece of jewelry set off chapters in the book. The catalog descriptions are catalysts, taking the reader and Nina further into the past. As the auction date nears, Nina is forced to confront memories and secrets that are intertwined with the jewels.
Russian Winter defies categorization. It is a literary novel that is part mystery and part historical. It has the ingredients that pull readers in: love, passion, betrayal, jealousy, loss and redemption. Daphne Kalotay has written a book that I look forward to recommending for a long time to come.
Juli Janovicz is the Head of Adult Services at Winnetka–Northfield Public Library District in Winnetka, IL. She is also the Coordinator of One Book Two Villages www.onebooktwovillages.org. She can be reached at julij@winnetkalibrary.org or www.twitter.com/@libraryj
-Kayleigh
