Anna of All the Russias: A Life of Anna Akhmatova

by Elaine Feinstein

In this definitive biography of the legendary Russian poet, Elaine Feinstein draws on a wealth of newly available material–including memoirs, letters, journals, and interviews with surviving friends and family–to produce a revelatory portrait of both the artist and the woman. Anna Akhmatova rose to fame in the years before World War I, but she would pay a heavy price for the political and personal passions that informed her brilliant poetry. In Anna of All the Russias we see Akhmatova's work banned from 1925 until 1940 and again after World War II. We see her steadfast opposition to Stalin, even while her son was held in the Gulag. We see her abiding loyalty to such friends as Mandelstam, Shostakovich, and Pasternak as they faced Stalinist oppression. And we see how, through everything, Akhmatova continued to write, her poetry giving voice to the Russian people by whom she was, and still is, deeply loved.

Genres: Biography, Poetry, Russia, History, Nonfiction, Russian Literature, Biography Memoir

368 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Elaine Feinstein was educated at Newnham College, Cambridge and has been awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Leicester. Before becoming a full-time writer, she worked as an editor for Cambridge University Press (1960-62), as Lecturer in English at Bishop's Stortford Training College (1963-6), as Assistant Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Essex (1967-70), and as a journalist.

She has contributed to many periodicals, including the Times Literary Supplement, and was formerly Writer in Residence for the British Council in Singapore and Tromsø, Norway.

Of Russian-Jewish ancestry, she has been influenced by Russian writers, especially Marina Tsvetayeva and Anna Akhmatova.

She is the author of a number of plays for television and radio and several biographies, including singer Bessie Smith, writer D. H. Lawrence, Poet Laureate Ted Hughes and Anna Akhmatova.

Reviews

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not entirely sure what to think about this book - so I'll comment as generously as I am able.

The text of this narrative resembles a concatenation of notes more closely than the text of any other biography that I can remember reading - all arranged so that the information in them appears in chronological order, all transferred to the page in complete, simple sentences. Much of what I expect to find in literary biography is missing from this book, especially an exploration, in detail, of the inner life of the writer, a narrative of its genesis, the emotional and intellectual events that occurred there, and so on.

But I also have to think that this particular composition is the product of the biographer's intention - her design for the book that she wanted to write.

What is it that Feinstein achieves - and achieves splendidly - through this design and technique? A decidedly vivid impression of the presence, the public persona of the poet, that the poet constructed, refined and maintained over most of her life and that displaced any other element of self that AA may have possessed.

I chose these words deliberately. The AA I encounter in Feinstein's book brought immediately to mind remarks about W. B. Yeats that appear in the first pages of Foster's biography, vol. 1. In 1914 WBY's childhood friend George Moore commented on WBY with "disapproval of his old friend's adoption of a mask, an artistic persona, a preoccupation with style." (p. xxv) To this Foster adds this: "In his own heroic self-construction ... WBY painted many layers over the portrait of himself as a young man." (ibid.)

My sense - today - is that the most valuable result of Feinstein's research and writing is her account of this same sort of "self-fashioning," a continuing refinement of a mask, a projection, that AA undertook in her adolescence, that became habitual, and that ultimately displaced every other element of self.

What happened? Feinstein provides all the events that many, many observers of AA's life recorded. Her book documents the results of only a very halting and uncertain attempt at delineating the trajectory of her subject's inner life. Here's my attempt.

It seems to me that during early adolescence AA discovered her genius for poetry and at that time she took up her vocation as poet. Very quickly her vocation - and her devotion to her gifts - displaced nearly every other concern. [Not unlike Emily Dickinson's response to similar discoveries.]

But what to write about? Suffering. AA appears to have drawn upon a very pronounced strain of masochism in her behavior for material. She chose and encouraged abusive men, "the kaleidoscope of A's so-called husbands". (p. 142) Regarding her second, insanely jealous, possessive and egocentric husband, AA wrote: "I felt so filthy, I thought it [her marriage] would be like a cleansing, like going to a convent, knowing you are going to lose your freedom." (p. 78) "Something in her welcomed this necessity for self-sacrifice."(p. 83) "A's poems about her relationship with S. suggest he was a monstrous bully on whom she remained utterly dependent emotionally even as she expressed her bewilderment at his oppression" in her poetry. (p. 83) And on and on.

She seems incapable of sustaining a connection with most any other human being who couldn't or didn't offer the intensity of abuse and suffering that she needed both to slake an insatiable appetite for emotional pain, that furnished the subject-matter of her poetry, and that also allowed her to pursue a secondary vocation - fashioning a certain public pose - quite as if she were creating the AA brand. My first clue: "Soon A. began to make a significant mark upon members of the artistic community, not only with her beauty and her poetic gifts but also with a presence of majestic sadness." (p. 36) I also noticed that once her current husband or lover, of whom there were scores and scores, had inflicted the last version of abuse in his inventory of abuses, AA suddenly lost interest and moved on to fresh sources of abuse - time for something entirely different - new material. "As another critic observed, N. was able to discern the steel backbone within the elegantly languid poetess." (p. 62) And there were payoffs, of course. An observer formed the impression that "the fame of her poetry was once again the most sustaining prop of her self-esteem." (p. 94) Another remark: "her life itself is empty, so much so that at times it frightens even me." (p. 107)

With WWI "her subject matter was beginning to widen and include the suffering of her country, as well as the pain in relations between man and women." (p. 54) With WWII: "The transformation of the 'gay little sinner from Tsarskoye Selo' into the voice of a whole people's suffering had begun." (p. 170) Whole new realms, domains and dominions of suffering to explore and to transform into art of the 'highest' sort.

And certain observers noticed, some quite hostile, in fact: "She is saucy, egotistical, plays at being the good queen and has ceased to live her own life, for she lives only biographically with an eye on the gesture and the word 'for the future'." (p. 216) More charitably Joseph Brodsky wrote: "Her genuine pain was transmuted once she came to write poems. ... As a poet 'submits to the demands of the muse, the language, it is a greater truth than the truth of experience ... ." (p. 248)

I now chant my mantra - yet once more - Never believe what you think.

[Corey Preston · Rating 3 out of 5]

A complex, impeccably researched, oftentimes deeply insightful (but other times, not so much...) biography of a towering literary figure, and an extraordinary life.

There was an awful lot to like in this book, but as a "good read" it fell a little short for me.
To my eye, Ms. Feinstein was determined to play things dutifully straight: hesitant to indulge in (exploit?) the immense human drama/tragedy of Akhmatova's life, but equally shy about writing a truly literary biography, one that works to mine the caverns of an historically great mind.
That sober, studiously unsensational, approach yields some really interesting moments, and the character of Akhmatova that emerges is, well, sober and studiously unsensational.
But the facts of Akhmatova's life are the stuff of epic, and the trove of recollections and correspondences Ms. Feinstein pieces together suggest a character that, while sober (and sad), was also quite unusual, and messy, and special.
And in that sense - the studious avoidance of pathos, despite pathos boiling under the surface on every damn page - this book feels like a bit of a misfire.

Still though, a lot to like. I would wholeheartedly recommend to any Akhmatova fan, and to anyone with an interest in 20th century Russia (especially if you, unlike me, have a fairly comprehensive knowledge of Russia - at times, the deluge of names was disorienting for me!)

[D'Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sin. Suffering. Sacrifice. And Stalin.

A hard read.
I came away understanding, a bit better, some of the artists of the Revolutionary and Soviet periods.
Trapped in a nightmare, they tried make sense of the chaos they helped to create and that ultimately destroyed a people. Many took their own lives.
AA survived.

[Raquel Casas · Rating 4 out of 5]

«¿Quién llorará ahora a esta mujer?
¿Acaso su pérdida no significa nada?
Tan sólo mi corazón no olvidará jamás
a la que dio su vida por una mirada»
💕
💕
💕
«Anna de todas las Rusias»(1889-1966), como la llamó Marina Tsvetaeva, fascinada por ella como todos cuantos la conocieron, fue una poeta rusa que en el marco del acmeísmo buscaba el reflejo de la realidad y de su mundo interior a través de objetos reales, sensaciones tangibles, lenguaje sencillo. De ahí que sus poemas sean a día de hoy aún memorizados por sus versos pegadizos que son universales ya que hablan del amor, de la muerte, de las injusticias, de las penalidades, de la amistad, por millones de rusos que siguen viendo en ella «su voz».
💕
💕
💕
Su vida fue tan convulsa como intensa. A pesar de su carácter flemático y de que la acusaran en ocasiones de arrogante y fría, lo cierto es que Ajmátova se aferró a la vida con una pasión inconmensurable. Rodeada de hombres que la acompañaron con devoción toda su vida (Gumiliov, Punin, Pasternak) y de mujeres que fueron para ella sus amigas, confidentes, hermanas (Lidia Chukovskaia, Olga Sudeikina, Anna Kamínskaia...) la vida de Anna fue de todo menos contemplativa. Su primer marido fue ejecutado, su hijo se pasó media vida de gulag en gulag (algo de lo que él culpaba su madre y marcó su compleja relación), su obra fue censurada durante años y numerosas amistades sufrieron el exilio, la persecución y la tortura. Aún así Ajmátova soportó la tristeza, la miseria y el olvido con dignidad encontrando en la poesía el clavo que la salvó de la locura y de la muerte. Isaiah Berlin dijo de ella que su coraje fue algo ejemplar para desmentir a quienes afirmaban que «los individuos no podían enfrentarse al avance de la historia».
💕
«La miel salvaje huele a libertad
el polvo, a rayos de sol; a violetas
la boca de una muchacha,
y el oro, a nada en absoluto.
Pero nosotros aprendimos para siempre
que la sangre tan sólo huele a sangre».
💕
#LeoAutoras #AnnaAjmátova #Niundíasinpoesía #GrandesbiografíasdeGrandesmujeres

[Sebastian · Rating 2 out of 5]

sadly this wasn't a very informative read. too much opinion and judgement based on too little resource. and the most important historical events were only shortly brushed over, whilst there is no denying how much they shaped anna.

[Chris Coffman · Rating 4 out of 5]

The wonderful poet Anna Akhmatova lived a life that was emblematic of the sorrows and greatness of Russia in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Born into a minor aristocratic family, she evolved from being a writer of erotic lyric poetry into the poetic voice of her nation during a period of great calamity. It is a magnificent story and Feinstein tells parts of it very well. The other aspect of this book which is absolutely wonderful are Feinstein's translations of Akhmatova's poetry; Feinstein is a poet herself, and her versions are consistently superior to those of Kunitz and Hayward.

Feinstein is best when chronicling Akhmatova's early years in the decadent milieu of St. Petersburg just before, during, and just after World War I. The level of sexual freedom and dizzyingly complex love affairs of Akhmatova and her circle recall the better-known era of Berlin in the 1920s. And, just as 1920s Berlin was, and is, widely seen as a doomed era on the precipice of a great reckoning, this is how Akhmatova came to see this period in her own life.

Feinstein is obviously not entirely in agreement, and aside from the remarkable story of Akhmatova's life, what is interesting about this book is how a gap widens between subject and author as the account of Akhmatova's life progresses.

The main issue is that Feinstein's own sympathies are consistently with Akhmatova's tormenters. Beginning with Lenin and Trotsky, who had her first husband Gumilov shot by firing squad, the Communists persecuted Akhmatova by denying her the ability to publish, subjecting her to near-starvation, and sending her second husband and her only son to concentration camps. Her second husband died during his second imprisonment as a man in his 60s, and her son's sufferings permanently embittered him against her, because he understood that the Communist leadership was punishing him as a proxy for Akhmatova herself.

Feinstein's discussion of these events is finally truly loathsome, as she belittles the great poet Mandelstam--whose moral courage equalled that of von Stauffenberg, the would-be assassin of Hitler, and in other sections Feinstein presents events from Stalin's point of view and repeatedly says that victims of Stalin's Terror brought it on themselves.

Mandelstam and Akmatova both lived in a period that imposed one of the sternest tests of moral courage of any period in human history, and Feinstein is too deeply compromised to have any authority on the main themes of Akhmatova's life. In fact, when Akhmatova's majestic courage and her triumph as a poet of almost boundless human sympathy peaks, Feinstein focuses on insinuations about bisexuality and other ultimately irrelevant issues. The most balanced and insightful brief treatment of Akhmatova's life can be found in the Introduction written by Max Hayward to POEMS OF AKHMATOVA, translated by Kunitz and Hayward (Nadezhda Mandelstam's HOPE AGAINST HOPE also gives a clear view of Akhmatova dignity, moral courage, and irrepressible spirit).

Despite the serious flaws in this book, the first half is so interesting and well-told, dealing as it does with an environment in which Feinstein feels totally comfortable, and Feinstein's translations of Akhmatova's poems are so good, that I rate this book 4 stars.

[Czarny Pies · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Anna of All the Russias: The life of Anna Akhmatova" is tremendous fun for anyone who loves tales of doomed Russian poets. I first encountered the genre as a 12 year old in 1966 when saw David Lean's "Doctor Zhivago" in the cinema. I read the novel 10 years later and today I have 92 Russian books in my GR database.
Feinstein's biography of Akhmatova is filled with literary gossip. Akhmatova's friends in the Russian literary community included Boris Pasternak, Alexander Blok, Joseph Brodsky, Yevgeny Zamyatin, Fyodor Sologub, Marina Tsvetaeva, Osip Mandelstam, Zinaida Gippius, and Ilya Ehrenburg. There are also interesting anecdotes about foreign literary figures including the British philosopher Isaiah Berlin and the Italian futurist Filippo Marinett.
Akhmatova's husband Nikolay Gumilyov was a poet and founder of the Acméist poetry movement. The Acméists called for clarity in poetry as opposed to the Russian Symbolists who favoured Dionysian euphoria. Stunningly beautiful Akhmatova was the "It Girl" of the Acméist movement. She was a regular at the "The Stray Dog Café" which was the meeting place for Acméist writers and poets between 1911 and 1915. Included in the group were Nikolay Gumilyov, Mandelstam, Mikhail Kuzmin, and of course Akhmatova herself. etc.
The Russian Revolution was of course a disaster. Nikolay Gumilyov executed as a counterrevolutionary by the Cheka in 1921. Many of Akhmatova's friends would also be executed or die in detention. Akhmatova's son Lev Gumilyov had several stays in prison camps.
Akhmatova chose not to emigrate which meant that she spend most of the last 45 years of her life in dire poverty sustained by the generosity of her friends and lovers. For many years it was impossible for her to publish her poetry but she persevered. At the time Feinstein wrote her biography, Akhmatova was considered as one of the two greatest Russian poets of the 20th century having only Marina Tsvetaeva as an equal.
Feinstein makes a very grim story both joyous and triumphal. Feinstein's device is to insert her own her translations of Akhmatova's poets to project Akhmatova's state of the mind at multiple points during her nightmarish existence under Stalin. Feinstein's biography is a more than a good read, it is a great read.
I think that Feinstein consistently misrepresents events to show Akhmatova in a favourable light however I forgive her. The result is an thrilling and inspiring tale. Why quibble if the facts are more than a little twisted?

[Micha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I became familiar with Akhmatova in high school, though I confess I've only read her poetry here and there, not in any dedicated fashion. There was this mysterious and enchanted quality to my imagination of her, as if I could only see her through a glass darkly. So when someone recommended this as a worthwhile biography to pick up I found I still felt this strange curiosity about Akhmatova that I couldn't quite explain, alongside this curiosity to try and get at a female writer's life as if it could somehow guide my own. In retrospect, perhaps I was foolish in choosing Akhmatova in this regard as no one could be more unlike me in disposition or in circumstances. This is an intensely detailed account not only of her life, but of the times she lived through, the constantly changing and constantly challenging Russia she lived through. It's a period I know about abstractly, but never devoted as much attention to as here where war and rations and terror and poverty take on a very real form by displaying just how much they affected an individual (isn't it easier to understand the trials of one over the trials of many?).

She is very tragic. Sometimes it is because she is so passionate. It seems impossible to have both passion and peace. You see her faults very clearly throughout this biography and there were times as an outsider I thought if only she behaved differently, how much better things might have been. She does not come off as likeable on the page, though it seems she was generous throughout her life and had such elegance and self-possession in her carriage that no one could quite resist paying attention to her. Of course, she does not need to be likeable, and I appreciated the insight we had into the highs and many lows of her life.

(The three-star rating should really be three and a half. What I wouldn't give for a more nuanced rating system on this site.)

[Vanessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I became interested in Anna Akhmatova when reading Europe Central, which features her as a prominent character. This biography excellently places her life in context during the terrible decades of the rise of the Soviet Union. Feinstein has a flair for describing the constellation of Akhmatova's artistic acquaintances and selects highly evocative quotes from the poems to illuminate particular moments during her life. It is not, however, a particularly skilled work of literary criticism. Snippets of the poems are used almost exclusively as biographical fodder, and are neither analyzed as works of art nor presented at any length to enable readers to reach their own conclusions. I was forced to read with The Complete Poems Of Anna Akhmatova next to me to provide sufficient context. As a result, I'm not sure I gained a fuller appreciation of Akhmatova as a poet. And while it's possible that Feinstein did not intend to write a literary biography - thus excusing the shallowness of the poems' treatment - the lack of thoughtful explication of why Akhmatova rose to such stature during her own time is a real failing.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This impeccably researched chronicle of the tortured life of one of Russia's most revered poets is a treasure trove of information about how the major historical epoch affected artists and citizens. Less successful is the account of Akhmatova's emotional and artistic life--though the liberal quotations from the poems are helpful. The organization of the book must have been a daunting task--one that does not quite succeed, as it moves first sharply and often clunkily around and back on itself with even the type of reference one dreads (see more on page xx) ripping the reader out of the narrative flow. Overall, I think Ms. Feinstein's scholarship and love of her subject show. What is sorely lacking is the hand of a skillful editor who would (should) have pointed up some glaring problems with inconsistent tense, authorial intrusion, and word choice that at times made me wonder if the book had been written by a native English speaker. Still, do not let that deter you. If this is subject matter you relish, you will be vastly rewarded by the riches of this book.

[Ruth · Rating 1 out of 5]

I like Anna's poetry, but I see no point in reading this bio. Anna seems a very lifeless figure, and perhaps her T.B. made her so. But reading about her is not interesting. The more you read, the more you dislike her (and I doubt I will get much past page 179 of 288). She seems to have little self-knowledge. Vapid might be a good word for her. Empty, cold, unfeeling. There's a 4-star review here that goes into much more detail about the things that bothered me. I have read a fair amount of Russian history, and expected to get more details of the things going on around Anna. While the show trials were going on she was at last being admitted to some Soviet writer's guild, so she is happy about that! Aside from standing in food queues, little is made of the horrors going on around her. Maybe the author did not choose to go into depth on these things, or maybe Anna didn't. I don't know. And I am too bored with the book to care.

[Lori Crossley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my first foray into a biography about Anna Akhmatova. From Feinstein's writing and research it seems as if not much was left written by Anna about her own life-separate from her poetry. Finding remaining journals and writings from her peers was also challenging. Feinstein has put together a readable biography of a fascinating poet who lived a a life of poetry, love (and lust) and struggle. Very well written-highly reccomended. Reading this has sparked my interest in Akhmatova's poetry which I'm looking forward to diving in to.

[Lois · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating, fair and easy-to-read biography of an incredible woman, scattered with extracts of poems and lyrics that have been translated with the 'allusive, literal, bare, bony, and precise' style of Akhmatova well intact. Having read this biography immediately after reading a collection of Akhmatova's poems from another translator, it was a great experience to see the poems placed within their relevant context, and translated in a different style. I think all poetry should be read this way!

[Derek · Rating 5 out of 5]

Solid biography one of Russia’s great heroines. Visit Akhmatova’s flat in St. Petersburg after you finish the book.

[Liviu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Andrei Zhdanov attack:

“Akhmatova’s subject-matter is individualistic to the core. The range of her poetry is sadly limited; it is the poetry of a spoilt woman-aristocrat, frenziedly vacillating between boudoir and chapel. Her main emphasis is on erotic love-themes interwoven with notes of sadness, longing, death, mysticism, fatality.

“A sense of fatality (quite comprehensible in a dying group), the dismal tones of a deathbed hopelessness, mystical experiences shot with eroticism, make up Akhmatova’s spiritual world; she is a leftover from the world of the old aristocracy now irrevocably past and gone, the world of ‘Catherine’s good old days’.

“It would be hard to say whether she is a nun or a fallen woman; better perhaps say she is a bit of each, her desires and her prayers intertwined.

“‘But I vow by the garden of angels,
‘By the miraculous icon I vow,
‘I vow by the child of our passion …’
– from Anno Domini, by Anna Akhmatova.

“Such is Akhmatova, with her petty, narrow personal life, her paltry experiences, and her religiously mystical eroticism.

“Her poetry is far removed from the people. It is the poetry of the ten thousand members of the elite society of the old aristocratic Russia. whose hour has long since struck and left them with nothing to do but sigh for ‘the good old days’, for the country estates of Catherine’s time, with their avenues of ancient lime trees, their fountains, their statues, their arches, their greenhouses, summerhouses and crumbling coats of arms, for aristocratic St Petersburg, for Tsarskoye Selo, for the railway station in Pavlovsk, and for other relics of the nobility’s culture.

“All of these have vanished into the irredeemable past.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nope, I never heard of Akhmatova, and I have no knowledge of Russian poetry, but this book fascinated me. Akhmatova lived from 1889 to 1966 in Russia, which meant she was around for the end of the regal era (and her role as a poet meant she could take part in some pretty fascinating good times), then the revolution, and Stalin's terror, and World War II, and Kruschev's easing of restrictions on the intelligentsia. Akhmatova also had some difficulties in her love life, and her relationship with her only son, made worse by his arrests during the terror, was not pleasant. But through it all, she wrote what seems to be amazing poetry, as evidenced by Feinstein's translations. I'm fascinated by the ways history affects individuals, and this biography is a classic example of that.

[Jane Fudger · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting biography of the Russian poet Anna Akhmatova but at times I feel areas were overwritten particularly when discussing the relationship between Akhmatov and then completelta where she allegedly weeps about his incarceration. This is particularly so as from other books she preferred poetry to her son!
I think the best part of the book is the description of the politics and life of the authors/poets during the Russian revolution

[Stuart · Rating 3 out of 5]

A thoughtful, well-researched biography of one of my favorite poets. Stumbles in the analysis a bit and strays towards an apologia at times. Still, a worthwhile read for students of Akhmatova, Russian poetry or the intersection between the humanities and fascism, a field experiencing, of late, explosive growth.

[Anna F. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I recommend this book to Russians and all those who knew this famous Russian poetess from the first part of the 20th Century. Interesting read from the historical point of view but found it a bit boring and dragging. Biographies can certainly be more fun and engaging!...

[Cristina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Una muy buena y completa biografía sobre esta poeta que adoro.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Beth Oehler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read! Especially alongside a volume of her poetry.

[julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

i admit i had to put this one down. or give it back to the library. i think the research was sloppy. feinstein gives the impression that she had but only vague knowledge of the russian revolution. she inadequately explains who the many people in anna's life are and she extrapolates far too much biography from anna's poems. poetry is art, it's not necessarily true. there is still room in the world for a good biography of anna akhmatova, but this is not it.

[julie · Rating 1 out of 5]

anna akhmatova was a fascinating character, but that's not at all evident in this abysmal biography of her. the author has but glancing knowledge of the russian revolution and the cast of characters in anna's life. she tried to extrapolate most of the biographical information from anna's poetry, seemingly not realizing that poetry is different than life and as art is not necessarily The Truth. one of the worst biographies i've read in a very long time.

[Cera · Rating 3 out of 5]

A perfectly servicable biography of Anna Akhmatova, a Russian poet who survived WWI, Stalin, WWI, the death of many people she loved, and estrangement from her son -- and wrote amazing poetry through most of it, even when she had to memorise the poems because it was too dangerous to write anything down.

[Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent biography of one of the 20th century's best poets. If you don't think you like poetry, then I would recommend this book. By telling the story of Anna, and the times she lived in, it puts a face to the history of the ussr, and the suffering it's people endured.

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I ever paint an icon it will be of Akhmatova for whom I have a life-long love. This book is simply wonderful and I'm trying to read it as slowly as possible so I won't get to the end.

[Ffiamma · Rating 3 out of 5]

se ci fosse un premio per gli editori meno accurati- lo vincerebbe sicuramente la tartaruga. ci sono refusi talmente orrendi che viene voglia di chiudere il libro.
(la copertina, però, è bellissima)

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting. As expected, I did get confused with all the different Russian names and nicknames.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mentioned in FT,
Windy writing
Self indulgent cold character