A frozen island.
A monastery turned political prison.
A cipher inked in blood.
When anarchist poet Katya Efremova is transferred to the prison colony on Solovetsky Island, she finds an enigma among her returned possessions – a blood-stained book containing a cipher left by her murdered mother, written on the day she died.
Following her mother’s clues, Katya begins to unravel a centuries-old mystery woven into the history of Solovetsky Island. Finding the island’s legendary power might be the key to overthrowing the Bolshevik regime, but Katya wasn’t sent to Solovetsky by chance. The head of the government’s spy network is watching, and there will be no hope of a free Russia if he takes hold of the magic hidden beneath the White Sea snow.
My thoughts: mixing history and real figures with fantasy and Russian folklore, this is a magical, heartbreaking and mystical book about secrets, power and the Russian revolution.
I studied Russian history and am fascinated by the folklore and mythology of this vast country. The history is often bloody and brutal, and the period following the Bolahevik revolution in 1917-18 especially so.
Solovetsky island was home to a monastery, but turned into a prison, and it is here our story takes place. Katya is the daughter of an anarchist revolutionary, now deceased, while Dima comes from an aristocratic family, both are considered enemies of the new regime.
Sentenced to hard labour in this frozen and miserable place, they are under the watchful eye of Commissar Boky (a real person, obsessed with magic and mysticism), who believes they can lead him to a magical item with the power to make him unstoppable.
Katya’s mother left clues that only her daughter can decipher, Katya has special powers, gifts from her parents’ bloodlines, as does Dima. As the two natural enemies grow closer, and unravel the clues to this mysterious item, their lives are in danger more than ever before. Will love win out or will the forces ranged against them defeat the two young people?
Tragic, moving and utterly beautiful, I was captivated and transported to the frozen tundra by this book. It reminded me of some of the Russian fairy tales I love, though thankfully no Baba Yaga, and the dark, bitter days after the overthrow of the last Tsars, a period I know a fair bit about. But you could read this knowing nothing about Russia and still be swept up in its love story and the epic quest Dima and Katya are on.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 