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Sashenka [Paperback]

Simon Sebag Montefiore (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (64 customer reviews)
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Book Description

Publication Date: 12 Mar 2009

Winter, 1916. In St Petersburg, snow is falling in a country on the brink of revolution. Beautiful and headstrong, Sashenka Zeitlin is just sixteen. As her mother parties with Rasputin and her dissolute friends, Sashenka slips into the frozen night to play her role in a dangerous game of conspiracy and seduction.

Twenty years on, Sashenka has a powerful husband and two children. Around her people are disappearing but her own family is safe.But she's about to embark on a forbidden love affair which will have devastating consequences.

Sashenka's story lies hidden for half a century, until a young historian goes deep into Stalin's private archives and uncovers a heart-breaking story of passion and betrayal, savage cruelty and unexpected heroism - and one woman forced to make an unbearable choice ...

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Product details

  • Paperback: 624 pages
  • Publisher: Corgi (12 Mar 2009)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0552154571
  • ISBN-13: 978-0552154574
  • Product Dimensions: 12.9 x 19.9 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (64 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 10,792 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Review

"Gripping from start to finish. The perfect mixture of sweeping history and page-turning storytelling" (Kate Mosse, Author Of Labyrinth )

"Intensely moving, with an unforgettable climax that will touch the hardest heart" (Jung Chang, Author Of Wild Swans )

"Furiously readable - it's hard to put Sashenka down. The glory and tragedy of her story remains long after the last page is turned" (Thomas Keneally, Author Of Schindler's List )

"Intricate, fast moving... by the time I put the book down, long after midnight, I was in tears" (THE TIMES 20080614)

"To write a good historical novel you have to recreate that world, both physically and intellectually - and there must be a sense that history is driving the plot forwards. Montefiore succeeds on all counts... The real achievement of this novel is that it describes the profound levels of self-deception required if you wanted to stay alive and be a loyal communist in Stalin's Russia" (EVENING STANDARD 20080609)

Book Description

In the bestselling tradition of Dr Zhivago and Sophie's Choice an epic story of revolution, passion and betrayal - and one woman whose extraordinary secret lies uncovered for half a century.
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
30 of 31 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars What a story! 6 July 2009
By Mrs. M. Widdowson
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!
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62 of 68 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A classic 3 July 2008
By Dr. Robert A. Josey VINE™ VOICE
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
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.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Loved it! 10 Oct 2010
By M. Hughes
Format:Paperback
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 didn't really sell it. However, it is an absolutely gripping read. You do really find yourself caring about the characters and their fate but, more than that, it provides a fascinating insight into how easily one could slip from favour in Stalinist Russia: just one careless act can set off an horrific chain of events. I really felt the emotions the characters were going through and the 'Terror' they must have felt: something, of course, many thousands of real people went through. A highly recommended read.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars LOVED THIS BOOK 25 Aug 2010
By Mrs. Judith Lugg
Format:Paperback
Sashenka

Unputdowable, well researched, on the edge of your seat stuff and if that's not enough, it can also make you cry! I picked it up in a charity shop for 60p!! What a bargain.
Don't miss this one - it will be amongst my books that I keep to re-read again and again.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars Well Told Melodrama 7 Mar 2010
By Jamie Lang
Format:Paperback
If you generally enjoy well told but non-too-serious melodrama which invents sensual characters who converse personally with everyone from Rasputin to Lenin and Stalin, you might enjoy this. The tale is competently told, without ever digging too deeply into the political and social complexities of the period. The sexual content hovers uncertainly between the salacious and attempts to give thinly-drawn characters warmth and depth. Long, at over 600 pages, but easy to read and unchallenging text.
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21 of 24 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A well researched historical novel - with a level of detail that brings the Russian Revolution right into your living room. 11 Mar 2010
By S. Barnes
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.... Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent
I previously owned Sashenka,I lent it out and it was not returned,it was a book I wished to keep,I enjoyed it so much,that was the reason for my purchase.
Published 15 hours ago by P Wilson
3.0 out of 5 stars book
I read only half of it and felt that I didn't want to read anymore. Not really what I was expecting.
Published 1 month ago by barbara thurston
5.0 out of 5 stars outstanding
This is page turner by simon montefiore. its quite outstanding and intellingently observed. I recommend this book to readers and book clubs.
Published 2 months ago by bookmoviefanatic
4.0 out of 5 stars All the Mystery & Intrigue of Soviet Life!
If only I'd read books like this in school, I would have found the history of USSR truly fascinating rather than the list of boring facts & figures I was given.
Published 3 months ago by Mrs. V. L. Hutchison
3.0 out of 5 stars Its Okay
A good story, but rather long-winded anbd repetitive. Needs a better editor to help the story along at a faster pace.
Published 4 months ago by niceynice
5.0 out of 5 stars Sashenka by Simon Montefiore
This was one of those books which I didn't want to finish. Beautifully written, it vividly tells the story of a Russian family from the time of the Revolution to the present. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Liz
5.0 out of 5 stars Just brilliant!
I started reading this book as I love to read about early 20th Russia -- thinking it looked like a love story with the history intertwined-- how wrong was I -- full of real life... Read more
Published 7 months ago by mrs christine reeve
5.0 out of 5 stars Superb
Sashenka, is one of the finest books I have ever read, a " true classic " and if it is ever made
into a film, it would be as big as Doctor Z,
Published 8 months ago by blueboy
3.0 out of 5 stars Sashenka
Simon Sebag Montefiore should stick to what he is best at, i.e, writing biographies. No doubt Sashenka is well-researched and authentic from the historical perspective, but as a... Read more
Published 9 months ago by A. Mills
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic book, loved the characters and the three time periods...
I loved this book - right from the start I found the characters interesting and I really wanted to understand what happened to them across the three eras of the book. Read more
Published 9 months ago by C. Gladwin
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