The golden skies, the translucent twilight, the white nights, all hold the promise of youth, of love, of eternal renewal. The war has not yet touched this city of fallen grandeur, or the lives of two sisters, Tatiana and Dasha Metanova, who share a single room in a cramped apartment with their brother and parents. Their world is turned upside down when Hitler's armies attack Russia and begin their unstoppable blitz to Leningrad.
Yet there is light in the darkness. Tatiana meets Alexander, a brave young officer in the Red Army. Strong and self-confident, yet guarding a mysterious and troubled past, he is drawn to Tatiana—and she to him. Starvation, desperation, and fear soon grip their city during the terrible winter of the merciless German siege. Tatiana and Alexander's impossible love threatens to tear the Metanova family apart and expose the dangerous secret Alexander so carefully protects—a secret as devastating as the war itself—as the lovers are swept up in the brutal tides that will change the world and their lives forever.
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“Readers…will come to care about these characters and their plight and will take away a definite sense of what the siege of Leningrad actually meant on a personal level.”
— Booklist
“Recalls Dr. Zhivago.”
— People“A heart-stopping love story.”
— Library Journal“Emotionally compelling…a page-turner.”
— Kirkus ReviewsPaullina Simons is the author of the acclaimed novels Tully, Red Leaves, and Eleven Hours, as well as the Bronze Horseman Trilogy. Born and raised in Saint Petersburg, Russia, she graduated from the University of Kansas and has lived in Rome, London, and Dallas. She currently lives near New York City with her husband and most of her children.
James Langton, an Earphones Award–winning narrator, trained as an actor at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and later as a musician at the Guildhall School in London. He has worked in radio, film, and television, also appearing in theater in England and on Broadway. He is also a professional musician who led the internationally renowned Pasadena Roof Orchestra from 1996 to 2002.