About Enchantments: A novel of Rasputin’s daughter and the Romanovs
Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks (February 26, 2013)
St. Petersburg, 1917. After Rasputin’s body is pulled from the icy waters of the Neva River, his eighteen-year-old daughter, Masha, is sent to live at the imperial palace with Tsar Nikolay and his family. Desperately hoping that Masha has inherited Rasputin’s healing powers, Tsarina Alexandra asks her to tend to her son, the headstrong prince Alyosha, who suffers from hemophilia. Soon after Masha arrives at the palace, the tsar is forced to abdicate, and the Bolsheviks place the royal family under house arrest. As Russia descends into civil war, Masha and Alyosha find solace in each other’s company. To escape the confinement of the palace, and to distract the prince from the pain she cannot heal, Masha tells him stories—some embellished and others entirely imagined—about Nikolay and Alexandra’s courtship, Rasputin’s exploits, and their wild and wonderful country, now on the brink of an irrevocable transformation. In the worlds of their imagination, the weak become strong, legend becomes fact, and a future that will never come to pass feels close at hand.
“[A] splendid and surprising book….Kathryn Harrison has given us something enduring – the last romantic figure of the [Romanov] era, a whip-cracking circus girl who was once an intimate part of a dying empire.” —New York Times Book Review
“Part love story, part history, this novel is a tour de force….[told] in language that soars and sears.” —More
“A mesmerizing novel.” —O, The Oprah Magazine
“Kathryn Harrison triumphantly returns to her historical fiction roots with Enchantments, the sweeping (and wholly imagined) story of love between two unlikely allies….Harrison takes a particular moment in time and brings it to stunning life….re-imagining history—and a love story—in a completely new way.” —Bookpage
“A surreal tale fueled by a legendarily randy real-life healer and his lion-taming daughter….A scrupulously researched retelling of the fiery end of Russia….Most of all, Enchantments is about the irreducible mysteries of human motivation.” —Elle
About Kathryn Harrison
Kathryn Harrison is the author of the memoirs The Kiss and The Mother Knot. She has also written the novels Envy, The Seal Wife, The Binding Chair, Poison, Exposure, and Thicker Than Water; a travel memoir, The Road to Santiago; a biography, Saint Thérèse of Lisieux; and a collection of essays, Seeking Rapture. She lives in New York with her husband, the novelist Colin Harrison, and their children.
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Kathryn Harrison’s TLC Book Tours TOUR STOPS:
Tuesday, February 26th: Passages to the Past – review
Wednesday, February 27th: Passages to the Past – guest post
Thursday, February 28th: Kritter’s Ramblings
Monday, March 4th: Bookworm Meets Bookworm
Tuesday, March 5th: Bippity Boppity Book – giveaway
Wednesday, March 6th: BookNAround
Monday, March 11th: Stiletto Storytime
Tuesday, March 12th: Broken Teepee – guest post
Wednesday, March 13th: Jenny Loves to Read
Monday, March 18th: A Bookish Way of Life
Tuesday, March 19th: Fiction Addict
Wednesday, March 20th: Confessions of an Avid Reader
Thursday, March 21st: Lit and Life
Friday, March 29th: Historical Tapestry and Adventures of an Intrepid Reader