Sashenka: Summary and book reviews of Sashenka by Simon Sebag Montefiore, plus links to an excerpt from Sashenka and a biography of Simon Sebag Montefiore.
Sashenka A Novel
by Simon Sebag Montefiore
Hardcover: Nov 2008,
544 pages.
Paperback: Nov 2009,
544 pages.
Winter 1916: St. Petersburg, Russia, is on the brink of revolution. Outside the Smolny Institute for Noble Girls, an English governess is waiting for her young charge to be released from school. But so are the Tsar's secret police...
Beautiful and headstrong, Sashenka Zeitlin is just sixteen. As her mother parties with Rasputin and their dissolute friends, Sashenka slips into the frozen night to play her part in a dangerous game of conspiracy and seduction.
Twenty years on, Sashenka is married to a powerful, rising Red leader with whom she has two children. Around her people are disappearing, while in the secret world of the elite her own family is safe. But she's about to embark on a forbidden love affair that 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 heartbreaking tale of betrayal and redemption, savage cruelty and unexpected heroism -- and one woman forced to make an unbearable choice.
A remarkable novel with an unforgettable protagonist. I found myself haunted by this book for quite some time after I turned the final page. Historian Montefiore shows much promise as a novelist, particularly if he can avoid the banalities pervading the early sections of this, his first fictional attempt. This book is sure to please readers interested in Russia's recent history. (Reviewed by Kim Kovacs).
Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Montefiore's prose is unexciting, but the tale is thick and complex, and the characters' lives take on a palpable urgency against a wonderfully realized backdrop.
Library Journal
Starred Review. Montefiore's Sashenka shows us that the Soviet interlude in Russia's blood-spattered history still makes for a gripping read in the 21st century. Highly recommended.
The Times (UK)
I spent the first 50 pages of the book shouting at it: too much brand-name dropping; too schmaltzy by half; and whatever happened to the horror? Had the author forgotten the horror? But, as the novel fast-forwarded to Sashenka's own comeuppance - 20 years later, when she and the rest of the Stalin aristocracy created by the revolution find themselves at the mercy of a secret police going mad on absolute power - my scepticism evaporated.
The Spectator (UK) Sashenka is a novel with many qualities, and when judged specifically as a first novel, it is excellent. It’s no surprise that the historical detail is strong, but it is impressive that the author never gets mired in it; Montefiore deploys his historical knowledge as a means to an end, rather than as the end in itself. The characterisation is superb, with Sashenka being especially well drawn ... The novel loses some quality, however, through its pacing, particularly midway.
The Scotsman Sashenka is grand in scale, rich in historical research, and yet never loses the flow of an addictive, racy, well-wrought plot. Sashenka combines a moving, satisfyingly just-neat-enough finale with a warning – that history has an awful habit of repeating itself. "All of us sin," the Rabbi tells Sashenka's father. "Without the choice, goodness would be meaningless".
The Daily Telegraph (UK)
Agile plotting, vivid characterisation and the exuberant spectacle of a well-informed author enjoying a flourish of serious frivolity - convoluted plot twists, astonishing coincidences, tear-jerking family separations and all - combine to make Sashenka an addictive page-turner with an elegant, steely edge of verisimilitude.
Recent Reader Reviews
Rated of 5
by Sandy W Great read This book was a classic for historical fiction in that it gave me so much information dealing with a period in history I know little about. Sashenka's life and dealings with the KGB were fascinating as well as how the existence of the secret... Read More
Rated of 5
by Vivian Sashenka Well written and descriptive of the time. One forgets exactly how dangerous it was to live in the time of such upheaval in Russia. The Czar is deposed and killed and the people think/hope/believe it will be a better place to live. The era under... Read More
A Short Biography of Rasputin Rasputin's role within St. Petersburg's high society is detailed throughout
the first section of Sashenka.
Gregori Yefimovich Rasputin was born in a small village in Siberia in 1864 or
1865. At the age of 18 he was sent to a monastery, possibly as a penance for a
minor theft. He returned a changed man, and embarked on the life of a religious
mystic. He married in 1889 and had three children. In
1901 he started traveling, spending time in Greece and Jerusalem, eventually settling in St.
Petersburg in 1903 as a self-proclaimed holy man, healer and prophet.
He was initially well-received by the Russian Orthodox Church in St Petersburg. He was
charismatic, with a talent for calming people and his forthright peasant style lent
him increasing credibility with St. Petersburg's aristocracy. He developed a
relationship with Anna Vyrubova, a close friend of Tsaritsa Alexandra, which
eventually led to his introduction to the Empress.
In 1905, Alexandra's only son Alexei, a hemophiliac,...
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Red Plenty is history, it's fiction, it's as ambitious as Sputnik, as uncompromising as an Aeroflot flight attendant, and as different from what you were expecting as a glass of Soviet champagne.
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The Times (UK)
of 5
by Sandy W
of 5
by Vivian
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