About Russian Winter
• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Arrow (5 Jan 2012)
When Nina Revskaya puts her remarkable jewelry collection up for auction, the former Bolshoi Ballet star finds herself overwhelmed by memories of her homeland, and of the events that changed her life half a century earlier. It was in Russia that she discovered the magic of dance and fell in love, and where, faced with Stalinist aggression, a terrible discovery incited a deadly act of betrayal—and an ingenious escape to the West.
Nina has kept her secrets for half a lifetime. But now Drew Brooks, an inquisitive associate at a Boston auction house, and Grigori Solodin, a professor who believes Nina’s jewels hold the key to unlocking his past, begin to unravel her story—setting in motion a series of revelations that will have life-altering consequences for them all.
“Intelligent, moving, and flitting seamlessly between the artistic salons of Soviet Russia and the Boston of today.” —The Guardian
“Stories within stories start to emerge…. This highly readable saga… does a convincing job of conjuring up life in Soviet cultural circles just after the war.” —The Independent
About Daphne Kalotay
Daphne Kalotay grew up in New Jersey, where her parents had relocated from Canada. After from Vassar College, where she majored in psychology, she moved to Boston to attend Boston University’s graduate program in creative writing. She stayed on at BU to study with Saul Bellow, writing her doctoral dissertation on one of her favorite writers, Mavis Gallant. Her interviews with Mavis Gallant can be found in The Paris Review‘s Writers-At-Work series.
At Boston University, Daphne’s stories won the Florence Engel Randall Fiction Prize and a Henfield Foundation Award. Her first book, CALAMITY AND OTHER STORIES, includes work first published in Agni, Good Housekeeping, Missouri Review, The Literary Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, and Prairie Schooner, and was short listed for the Story Prize. Her first novel, RUSSIAN WINTER, is on the 2012 longlist for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and is being published in 21 foreign editions.
Daphne has taught creative writing at Boston University, Middlebury College, Skidmore College, and Grub Street and lives in the Boston area.
Find out more about Daphne at her website, and be sure to like her on Facebook! A reading group guide is available.
Daphne’s Tour Stops
Monday, February 6th: She Reads Novels
Wednesday, February 8th: Reading With Tea
Thursday, February 9th: Fleur Fisher in her world
Tuesday, February 14th: DizzyC’s Little Book Blog – author interview
Wednesday, February 15th: Pining for the West
Thursday, February 16th: Chuck’s Miscellany
Monday, February 20th: one more page
Tuesday, February 21th: I hug my books
Tuesday, February 21th: DizzyC’s Little Book Blog – review
Wednesday, February 22th: The Sweet Bookshelf
Thursday, February 23rd: A Book Sanctuary