- Paperback: 480 pages
- Publisher: Bantam Press; Airport / Export ed edition (30 Jun 2008)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0593056388
- ISBN-13: 978-0593056387
- Product Dimensions: 23.2 x 15.2 x 4.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (53 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 432,418 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Sashenka
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More About the Author
Product Description
KATE MOSSE, author of Labyrinth and Sepulchre
'The perfect mixture of history and clever storytelling, with wonderful female characters and a seriousness of purpose that stands out. Gripping from start to finish.'
Jung Chang, author of Wild Swans
'Intensely moving and gripping, with an unforgettable climax that will touch the hardest heart'
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
25 of 26 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
An epic saga of life from beginning to end of 20th century Russia, it left me totally exhausted!
Sashenka is such an amazing book, full of riches both emotionally and historically. Montefiore tells an incredibly detailed, sometimes beautiful, sometimes utterly tragic story of a series of women linked by the formidable Sashenka. I loved the way the many personal stories wove in and out of each other, the plot was superb. I lived and breathed with the characters losing all sense of time and space as I read on to see how the many twists and turns of history would affect the spirited heroine and her colourful family.The book truly made me realise just how much the Russian people experienced in the 20th century, Russia has seen such incredible changes!
Sashenka is such an amazing book, full of riches both emotionally and historically. Montefiore tells an incredibly detailed, sometimes beautiful, sometimes utterly tragic story of a series of women linked by the formidable Sashenka. I loved the way the many personal stories wove in and out of each other, the plot was superb. I lived and breathed with the characters losing all sense of time and space as I read on to see how the many twists and turns of history would affect the spirited heroine and her colourful family.The book truly made me realise just how much the Russian people experienced in the 20th century, Russia has seen such incredible changes!
61 of 67 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I didn't know quite how to approach this novel. I have read both of Montefiore's studies of Stalin, young and old. They are both extremely disturbing books - but full of telling historical incident, twisted plotting which just couldn't be made up, and an eye for the intimate detail.
Montefiore, the historical fiction writer, employs those strengths in creating an exceptionally powerful saga. I really felt drawn into the story and began to get quite emotionally involved about a third of the way through the book. The writing is vivid, well paced and evocative. (There are also knowing echoes of Tolstoy and Pasternak in there.)
But, above all, I was totally, unashamedly gripped by the 'what is going to happen next?' syndrome. The characters became people I really cared about - and the ending..? It is everything the reviewers said. A real hammer blow to the heart.
'Sashenka' is an excellent 'literary historical novel'. It is passionate, complex, incisive, salutary and utterly bloody upsetting. One of those classic books that people will want to read again - I certainly will - when I recover from it - and enthuse others to read.
Montefiore, the historical fiction writer, employs those strengths in creating an exceptionally powerful saga. I really felt drawn into the story and began to get quite emotionally involved about a third of the way through the book. The writing is vivid, well paced and evocative. (There are also knowing echoes of Tolstoy and Pasternak in there.)
But, above all, I was totally, unashamedly gripped by the 'what is going to happen next?' syndrome. The characters became people I really cared about - and the ending..? It is everything the reviewers said. A real hammer blow to the heart.
'Sashenka' is an excellent 'literary historical novel'. It is passionate, complex, incisive, salutary and utterly bloody upsetting. One of those classic books that people will want to read again - I certainly will - when I recover from it - and enthuse others to read.
20 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Sashenka - where to start? - she begins in the story as an idealistic, intelligent educated young woman. At the age of sixteen she is in that transitory period between a child's world and an adult's world. Her parents and beloved English nanny see her very much as inhabiting the former, but Shashenka has by this time already been in rebellion against the materialistic world of her parents and peers at school, and has been inhabiting a darker and more idealistic world. Already at odds with the riches, indulgences and frivolities of upper class society, Shashenka has been recruited by her Uncle Mendel into an idealistic underworld of socialism, and the Communist Party. Party numbers are low in St. Petersburg in 1916 and Shashenka "Comrade Snowfox" has an important part to play in running messages, arms, ammunition and information. A brief run in with the law leads her down some darker alleys, and trying to play a game of double-deceit she ends up in a series of flirtatious meetings with a Tsarist Gendarme officer, Captin Sagan. The story continues as Russia escalates into revolution.
In turn spanning three generations, there's a lot of history to take in with the plot. We have Shashenka at sixteen at the beginning; Shashenka and her family 20 years later, still in turbulent times of communist Russia and under constant threat of persecution for being of aristocratic background; and then the story of a young Russian history graduate in 1994 becoming entangled in the story of Shashenka and her husband and children, in attempt to find out what became of them and whether they might be related to a family history search she has become embroiled in.
With a few slightly unbelievable moments aside, this is an excellent story, and a vivid and emotional portrayal of life in twentieth-century Russia. Only the hardest of hearts could fail to be moved by Shashenka's story and the plight of millions of Russians during times or civil war, revolution, famine, terror and persecution, and I can wholeheartedly recommend the book to anyone who enjoys well-researched historical fiction, whatever the era. 5* from me, and some more fiction please Simon Montefiore?
In turn spanning three generations, there's a lot of history to take in with the plot. We have Shashenka at sixteen at the beginning; Shashenka and her family 20 years later, still in turbulent times of communist Russia and under constant threat of persecution for being of aristocratic background; and then the story of a young Russian history graduate in 1994 becoming entangled in the story of Shashenka and her husband and children, in attempt to find out what became of them and whether they might be related to a family history search she has become embroiled in.
With a few slightly unbelievable moments aside, this is an excellent story, and a vivid and emotional portrayal of life in twentieth-century Russia. Only the hardest of hearts could fail to be moved by Shashenka's story and the plight of millions of Russians during times or civil war, revolution, famine, terror and persecution, and I can wholeheartedly recommend the book to anyone who enjoys well-researched historical fiction, whatever the era. 5* from me, and some more fiction please Simon Montefiore?
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
What a tale !
Simon Sebag Montefiore is mostly known for the books he wrote on Russia and the Soviet Union including Catherine the Great and Potemkin: The Imperial Love Affair and The Court of... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Thomas Koetzsch
A must read
I bought this book as it was chosen by my bookclub. I loved it couldn't put it down. Its a big book but I finished it very quickly. I recommend it.
Published 6 months ago by phglover
A very good read
First bit was a little difficult to get in to, but it was well worth persevering because the last half was griping. Read more
Published 7 months ago by amazonian shopper
A groan a minute.
I honestly cannot understand the many rave reviews of this book. I am battling to finish it as it was selected for our book club read. Read more
Published 7 months ago by rosie red
Four out of five
I like an historical novel which makes you feel you're there and understanding a bit of how life was like then and there: Sashenka does this very well, in all 3 parts. Read more
Published 12 months ago by delyss
A very special book
I agree with those who say the book is slow to get going but anyone who gave up in the early stages has missed something very special. Read more
Published 16 months ago by C. G. Jaques
Maribee
Sashenka !!!!!! What a fabulous story....based on fact, a dreadful tale of the terrors of living in Russia during the revolution and counter revolutions, never being sure who is on... Read more
Published 17 months ago by maribee
Such a well written novel, clever and compelling!
Sashenka, I couldn't have left it in the bookstore after having read the worldwide known Sebag Montefiore's Russian history books. I knew it, it was a good choice. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Lupo
Loved it!
Having read both 'Young Stalin' and 'The Court of the Red Tsar' and found them very readable, I bought this about a year ago and it sat on my shelf for all that time as the blurb... Read more
Published 20 months ago by M. Hughes
sashenka
A truely amazing story. Every page draws you in and your not going to want to let go of it until you finish reading!
Published 20 months ago by sakine
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