About Russian Winter
Paperback: 496 pages
Publisher: Harper Perennial (April 5, 2011)
“An exceptional debut novel…of secrets, intrigue, and wonderfully described priceless gems.” –USA Today
“This novel, about an oppressive Soviet Russia, a mysterious amber pendant, and the lives of ballerinas, composers, and poets, is fantastic.” —The Rumpus
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, both glorious and heartbreaking, 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.
“You will be awake until 4 a.m. reading Daphne Kalotay’s debut novel.” —The Oregonian
“A magnificent tale of love, loss, betrayal, and redemption.” –Washington Post
About Daphne Kalotay
Daphne Kalotay grew up in New Jersey, where her parents had relocated from Ontario; her mother is Canadian, her father is Hungarian. She attended Vassar College, majoring in psychology, before moving to Boston to attend Boston University’s graduate program in fiction writing. She stayed on at BU to study with Saul Bellow as part of the University Professors program, where she earned a PhD in Modern and Contemporary literature, writing her dissertation on one of her favorite writers, Mavis Gallant. Her interview with Mavis Gallant can be found in the Paris Review’s Writers-at-work series.
At Boston University, Daphne’s stories won the school’s Florence Engell Randall Fiction Prize and a Henfield Foundation Award. Her first book, the fiction collection Calamity and Other Stories, includes work first published in Agni, Good Housekeeping, The Literary Review, Missouri Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, and Prairie Schooner, and was short-listed for the Story Prize.
Daphne has taught literature and creative writing at Boston University, Skidmore College, and Middlebury College. She 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 would be happy to provide guest posts and is available for interviews for your blog. Please contact TLC with specific requests.
Daphne’s Tour Stops
Tuesday, April 5th: Library Queue
Wednesday, April 6th: Luxury Reading
Thursday, April 7th: nomadreader
Monday, April 11th: A Few More Pages
Thursday, April 14th: We Be Reading
Tuesday, April 19th: Books Like Breathing
Tuesday, April 19th: Chefdruck Musings
Thursday, April 21st: Book Addiction
Monday, April 25th: red headed book child
Tuesday, April 26th: Red Lady’s Reading Room
Thursday, April 28th: Calico Critic
Friday, April 29th: Wordsmithonia
Monday, May 2nd: Historical Tapestry
Tuesday, May 3rd: Man of La Book
Wednesday, May 4th: In the Next Room
Thursday, May 5th: Life in the Thumb
Friday, May 6th: she reads and reads