Russian Winter

Russian Winter
By Daphne Kalotay
Harper, 2010. 466 pgs. Historical Fiction

Now in her 80s, Nina Revskaya, a former star of the Russian Bolshoi Ballet, decides to auction off her collection of jewelry. She claims it is to help the Boston Ballet, which she has supported for many years after her defection, but really it is to quiet the ghosts of her past. All the people Nina loved; her husband, mother, and best friend, Vera, have been lost because of the harsh paranoias of Stalinist Russia.

Grigori Solodin, a man adopted in Soviet Russia, has been searching for his birth parents for many years. He was given an amber necklace and a few love letters and photographs. These clues have led him to believe that Nina and her poet husband, Viktor Elsin, could be his parents, but the one time he approached Nina, she denied everything.

Drew Brooks is a 30-something single woman working for Beller, the auction house hired to auction Nina’s jewels. She has her own connection to Russia, and feels there is much more to Nina’s story that needs to be told.

The novel switches back and forth from current day to Nina Revskaya’s memories of her life in 1950s Soviet Russia as it slowly unfolds its mysteries. I found this to be a very enjoyable, fascinating read. While at times I felt the pace could have been a little quicker, I still had a hard time putting it down. I highly recommend picking it up.

AJ