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Winterland
Perfection has a cost . . .
Reminiscent of Maggie Shipstead’s Astonish Me and Julia Phillips’s Disappearing Earth, Winterland tells the story of a previous era, shockingly pertinent today, shaped by glory and loss and finding light where none exists.
In the Soviet Union in 1973, there is perhaps no greater honor for a young girl than to be chosen to be part of the famed USSR gymnastics program. So when eight-year-old Anya is tapped, her family is thrilled. What is left of her family, that is. Years ago her mother disappeared. Anya’s only confidant is her neighbor, an older woman who survived unspeakable horrors during her ten years in a Gulag camp—and who, unbeknownst to Anya, was also her mother’s confidant and might hold the key to her disappearance. As Anya moves up the ranks of competitive gymnastics, and as other girls move down, Anya soon comes to realize that there is very little margin of error for anyone.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published November 29, 2022
117 people are currently reading
16720 people want to read
About the author
Rae Meadows
11 books446 followersRae Meadows is the author of the forthcoming WINTERLAND and four previous novels: Calling Out, No One Tells Everything, Mercy Train (in hardcover as Mothers and Daughters), and most recently, I Will Send Rain, which was an Indie Next pick, and received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, and Booklist. She is the recipient of the Goldenberg Prize for Fiction, the Hackney Literary Award for the novel, and the Utah Book Award, and her work has been published widely. Meadows lives with her family in Brooklyn, New York.
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October 9, 2023
Interesting ideas but poor storytelling
When I was 30% into this book, I set it down while I was on vacation for 6 days. Not once did I think about this book.
Winterland didn’t have a clear identity (and not in a good way). When I was 80% into the book, I was wondering where the book was going. It wasn’t plot-driven. So the suspense never increased. This book certainly wasn’t a Carrie Soto is Back.
If it was supposed to be character-driven, the author went too wide instead of deep on this one. Instead of focusing on Anya, Meadows tried to tell the story of Yuri, Irina, Vera, Katerina, Elena, and Svetlana.
Because of the number of characters, none of them were properly developed so I wasn’t invested in any of them. When you read The Hunger Games, you know why Katniss has certain friends—the author shows us moments that pass between the characters.
However, in Winterland, we don’t witness moments passing between the characters. Even though Svetlana keeps showing up in the book, I still don’t understand the friendship between her and Anya. Did Svetlana come to her rescue?
Another example: One of the characters has a relationship in the labor camp. It was described in two paragraphs. What? What was this character feeling? Did she look for the person? Did she look forward to meeting up with this person, just to feel special for a moment? Did she fear for her safety after the relationship?
The format of this book just didn’t work. It is presented chronologically with short flashbacks. Wild Swans is a book that I really enjoyed, and it was told chronologically but not in flashbacks. It went deep into the lives of three characters. Winterland, in contrast, felt disorganized, and the details were so high level that I didn’t connect with the story.
The real-life story buried under this is actually very interesting. Elena Mukhina was a gymnast representing the USSR in the late 1970’s. She has an extremely dangerous (now banned) move named after her. Very sadly, she broke her neck two weeks before the 1980 Summer Olympics while attempting The Thomas Salto.
If you aren’t already familiar with The Thomas Salto, pull up a video on YouTube, essentially the gymnast does not land on his or her feet but dives into the mat. You must land perfectly on your shoulders, or you will break your neck. The move is now banned in both men’s and women’s gymnastics.
*Thanks, NetGalley, for a free copy of this book in exchange for my fair and honest opinion.
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When I was 30% into this book, I set it down while I was on vacation for 6 days. Not once did I think about this book.
Winterland didn’t have a clear identity (and not in a good way). When I was 80% into the book, I was wondering where the book was going. It wasn’t plot-driven. So the suspense never increased. This book certainly wasn’t a Carrie Soto is Back.
If it was supposed to be character-driven, the author went too wide instead of deep on this one. Instead of focusing on Anya, Meadows tried to tell the story of Yuri, Irina, Vera, Katerina, Elena, and Svetlana.
Because of the number of characters, none of them were properly developed so I wasn’t invested in any of them. When you read The Hunger Games, you know why Katniss has certain friends—the author shows us moments that pass between the characters.
However, in Winterland, we don’t witness moments passing between the characters. Even though Svetlana keeps showing up in the book, I still don’t understand the friendship between her and Anya. Did Svetlana come to her rescue?
Another example: One of the characters has a relationship in the labor camp. It was described in two paragraphs. What? What was this character feeling? Did she look for the person? Did she look forward to meeting up with this person, just to feel special for a moment? Did she fear for her safety after the relationship?
The format of this book just didn’t work. It is presented chronologically with short flashbacks. Wild Swans is a book that I really enjoyed, and it was told chronologically but not in flashbacks. It went deep into the lives of three characters. Winterland, in contrast, felt disorganized, and the details were so high level that I didn’t connect with the story.
The real-life story buried under this is actually very interesting. Elena Mukhina was a gymnast representing the USSR in the late 1970’s. She has an extremely dangerous (now banned) move named after her. Very sadly, she broke her neck two weeks before the 1980 Summer Olympics while attempting The Thomas Salto.
If you aren’t already familiar with The Thomas Salto, pull up a video on YouTube, essentially the gymnast does not land on his or her feet but dives into the mat. You must land perfectly on your shoulders, or you will break your neck. The move is now banned in both men’s and women’s gymnastics.
*Thanks, NetGalley, for a free copy of this book in exchange for my fair and honest opinion.
Connect With Me!
Blog Twitter BookTube Facebook Insta
October 24, 2022
Rae Meadows allows you to feel the Arctic cold, but this novel is not just chilling because the setting is mostly in Siberia. She portrays the story of young gymnasts whose lives are not their own as they compete for the Soviet Union. A chilling portrayal for sure, as we witness not just rigorous training , but the cruelty of having to “put aside the pain”, taking shots to numb the pain , being forced to compete while ill, being forced to compete when your bones are not yet healed. All for the glory of the state. It’s also chilling to learn about Vera, the sweet and caring lady who befriends Anya as she did Anya’s mother Katerina . With strength and courage and the will to live, Vera survives the camps, the gulags of the 1950’s having endured unimaginable losses. It’s chilling to see the toll that working in the copper mines has on Anya’s father with his belief he is doing the right thing for the good of the state. It’s chilling as the reader wonders throughout what happened to Anya’s mother, a former Bolshoi Ballerina.
This is a beautifully written novel reflecting the Soviet Union in the 70’s and by flashback to the Gulags, told through the lives of characters who will stay with me. Such an amazing depiction of time and place . Lovely little Anya, who loves gymnastics, Elena based on a real gymnast Elena Mukhina and her devastatingly sad story. Vera and Katerina who we know through the other characters. Rae Meadows is such a talented writer. I loved I Will Send Rain about a different place and time, also so well done. Both novels are filled with heartbreak and loss, but also the strength of the human spirit in face of adversity. It’s also a stunning expose of the sport and is eerily relevant today. This will definitely be on my list of favorites for the year.
I read this with Diane. We had a couple of glitches, technical and otherwise that slowed our discussion , but always a pleasure to read together.
I received a copy of the book from Henry Holt and Co. through NetGalley.
This is a beautifully written novel reflecting the Soviet Union in the 70’s and by flashback to the Gulags, told through the lives of characters who will stay with me. Such an amazing depiction of time and place . Lovely little Anya, who loves gymnastics, Elena based on a real gymnast Elena Mukhina and her devastatingly sad story. Vera and Katerina who we know through the other characters. Rae Meadows is such a talented writer. I loved I Will Send Rain about a different place and time, also so well done. Both novels are filled with heartbreak and loss, but also the strength of the human spirit in face of adversity. It’s also a stunning expose of the sport and is eerily relevant today. This will definitely be on my list of favorites for the year.
I read this with Diane. We had a couple of glitches, technical and otherwise that slowed our discussion , but always a pleasure to read together.
I received a copy of the book from Henry Holt and Co. through NetGalley.
December 12, 2022
For those who were enthralled by gymnastics in the ‘70’s and ‘80’s, this is a time-travel piece that brings you back to the mind-blowing daring of those tiny female gymnastic dynamos. Remember Nadia Comaneci, Nellie Kim, Olga Korbut, and Elena Mukhina? Author Rae Meadows explores what the Soviet girls endured for the honor of their country.
The story begins in Norilsk Russia, a remote mining town in Siberia, north of the Arctic Circle, where the sun doesn’t show itself during the winter. Little Anya lives with her father in a rundown housing building. Her father mines copper and has lost status in the Communist Party. Her father, Yuri, is a true believer. He believes that communism will save the world and suffering is for the good of the Soviet nation. Norilsk is polluted from the mining; rain burns the skin, fog makes your throat itch, and air makes you cough. The sun only shines from late May to late July, when the sun never sets. Meadows does a fantastic job setting the depressing scene of the drab existence of those who were placed there to work. The Soviet government determines your employment and where you will work. The atmosphere is bleak; yet the Soviet government has true believers, such as Yuri. When Anya is chosen, Yuri and she receives a stipend from the government for such an honor.
Anya’s mother, a former Bolshoi ballerina went missing 3 years earlier. Where she went, and why remains a mystery to both Anya and her father. Anya inherited her mother’s grace and athleticism. Anya, though, wants to be a gymnast. When a gymnastic scout is sent to the gym where Anya trains in, she is notices. She is then selected to train with her trainer, Anatoly Popov, to the famed national gymnastics training center at Round Lake to prepare for the 1980 Moscow Olympics.
This was the time period in which gymnastics was changing from the curves and ballet classicism to modern gymnastics of young small athletic daring. The chosen girls were even given shots to keep breast development at bay. Meadows is brilliant at representing what those young girls endured, all to win gold for the Soviet Union; broken bones be damned.
The other interesting storyline is Vera, former friend of Anya’s mother. She tells the reader about her pre-revolutionary childhood and how she ended up in a Siberian labor camp. Her story is heart-wrenching…..who informs on who just to survive.
What I enjoyed about this story is how Meadows fully immersed me in that time period in the Soviet Union. How did so many become complicit in the inhumane conditions of their own people? Meadows provides an interesting view.
The story begins in Norilsk Russia, a remote mining town in Siberia, north of the Arctic Circle, where the sun doesn’t show itself during the winter. Little Anya lives with her father in a rundown housing building. Her father mines copper and has lost status in the Communist Party. Her father, Yuri, is a true believer. He believes that communism will save the world and suffering is for the good of the Soviet nation. Norilsk is polluted from the mining; rain burns the skin, fog makes your throat itch, and air makes you cough. The sun only shines from late May to late July, when the sun never sets. Meadows does a fantastic job setting the depressing scene of the drab existence of those who were placed there to work. The Soviet government determines your employment and where you will work. The atmosphere is bleak; yet the Soviet government has true believers, such as Yuri. When Anya is chosen, Yuri and she receives a stipend from the government for such an honor.
Anya’s mother, a former Bolshoi ballerina went missing 3 years earlier. Where she went, and why remains a mystery to both Anya and her father. Anya inherited her mother’s grace and athleticism. Anya, though, wants to be a gymnast. When a gymnastic scout is sent to the gym where Anya trains in, she is notices. She is then selected to train with her trainer, Anatoly Popov, to the famed national gymnastics training center at Round Lake to prepare for the 1980 Moscow Olympics.
This was the time period in which gymnastics was changing from the curves and ballet classicism to modern gymnastics of young small athletic daring. The chosen girls were even given shots to keep breast development at bay. Meadows is brilliant at representing what those young girls endured, all to win gold for the Soviet Union; broken bones be damned.
The other interesting storyline is Vera, former friend of Anya’s mother. She tells the reader about her pre-revolutionary childhood and how she ended up in a Siberian labor camp. Her story is heart-wrenching…..who informs on who just to survive.
What I enjoyed about this story is how Meadows fully immersed me in that time period in the Soviet Union. How did so many become complicit in the inhumane conditions of their own people? Meadows provides an interesting view.
December 18, 2022
In my quest to learn more of Russian history, Winterland is another “story” that reflects life as the Russians knew it- or know it.
The pressures of being loyal to the country. Sacrificing everything for the motherland. Being at the mercy of a system that only cares about how you can support it.
This takes place in Norilsk, the northernmost city of Siberia. Brrr. This story is of Anya, an 8 year old gymnast who must sacrifice everything she has to be the best. And win. The Soviet mentality: everything you do must be for the motherland. There must be no weakness. Her relationship with Vera, the 80 something year old neighbour, who survived her own horror in the gulag years earlier. Anya’s mother, a ballerina, Who went missing when she was 5. Likely taken because she had opposing views of the state.
The information and propaganda that shaped these people. Their inability to make their own decisions for what’s best for them but rather what’s best for Russia. Their restrictions being further hindered now by the war Putin has inflicted on the Ukraine. Their knowledge of the war and the world being limited to what is chosen for them by the media. And for those who know more, really what can they do? Protestors get arrested. There is no freedom of speech. Your neighbour can be your friend one day, and turn you in the next. Have things really changed over the decades?
4.25⭐️
Thank you Rae for writing this. I know we’ve been friends on GR for years but this is the first I’ve sampled of your talented writing. It won’t be the last!!!
The pressures of being loyal to the country. Sacrificing everything for the motherland. Being at the mercy of a system that only cares about how you can support it.
This takes place in Norilsk, the northernmost city of Siberia. Brrr. This story is of Anya, an 8 year old gymnast who must sacrifice everything she has to be the best. And win. The Soviet mentality: everything you do must be for the motherland. There must be no weakness. Her relationship with Vera, the 80 something year old neighbour, who survived her own horror in the gulag years earlier. Anya’s mother, a ballerina, Who went missing when she was 5. Likely taken because she had opposing views of the state.
The information and propaganda that shaped these people. Their inability to make their own decisions for what’s best for them but rather what’s best for Russia. Their restrictions being further hindered now by the war Putin has inflicted on the Ukraine. Their knowledge of the war and the world being limited to what is chosen for them by the media. And for those who know more, really what can they do? Protestors get arrested. There is no freedom of speech. Your neighbour can be your friend one day, and turn you in the next. Have things really changed over the decades?
4.25⭐️
Thank you Rae for writing this. I know we’ve been friends on GR for years but this is the first I’ve sampled of your talented writing. It won’t be the last!!!
July 25, 2022
This is an incredible book. It deserves 5 Stars.
Anya lives in Norilsk, Siberia with her father, Yuri. Anya is a talented gymnast and it is a great honor to be selected to train for the Soviet Union Team. Anya is just 8. She has not seen her mother, Katerina for 3 years. It is assumed she may be dead, but no one is certain. The story takes place starting in 1973, and continues for several years. This is a time I remember so well, with Romanian, Gymnast, Nadia Comaneci competing against the Soviet members. My young friends, Angela, Gina, and myself watched this every night. We all decided we wanted to be Olympic Gymnasts.
So, the gymnastics is a big part of the book, but It is also a wonderful and rich character study of Anya, Yuri, Katerina, and also their neighbor, Vera. Stalin has left and now is supposed to be a new ERA for the Communist Party. Yuri and Katerina leave for Norilsk, to be true believers, the common good is more important then the individual. Katerina starts to miss her dancing and being her own self and talks to Vera often. Vera was in Norilsk, along with her husband and young child for many years. Vera’s husband worked at the University and was completely innocent. There was not even a trial, yet they are starving, in the Gulag, with horrendous conditions, and must work long days while emaciated. She certainly lived a different life among the Soviets. Katerina starts to share her dreams and question the Soviet ideals. Shortly, after she goes missing.
Yuri knows of other friends who meet this same fate, but he is still holding on to The Motherland, great Russia is good, even when unfortunate events sometimes occur that he thinks are wrong.
So, I learned so much about the thinking of the Soviet people. This is not a fast paced sports story. It is much more about those within the country who live and believe in different ways. It is a story with a lot to say. I l loved the story.
Thank you, NetGalley, Rae Meadows, and Henry, Holt and Company for a copy of this book. I am always happy to leave my own review.
Anya lives in Norilsk, Siberia with her father, Yuri. Anya is a talented gymnast and it is a great honor to be selected to train for the Soviet Union Team. Anya is just 8. She has not seen her mother, Katerina for 3 years. It is assumed she may be dead, but no one is certain. The story takes place starting in 1973, and continues for several years. This is a time I remember so well, with Romanian, Gymnast, Nadia Comaneci competing against the Soviet members. My young friends, Angela, Gina, and myself watched this every night. We all decided we wanted to be Olympic Gymnasts.
So, the gymnastics is a big part of the book, but It is also a wonderful and rich character study of Anya, Yuri, Katerina, and also their neighbor, Vera. Stalin has left and now is supposed to be a new ERA for the Communist Party. Yuri and Katerina leave for Norilsk, to be true believers, the common good is more important then the individual. Katerina starts to miss her dancing and being her own self and talks to Vera often. Vera was in Norilsk, along with her husband and young child for many years. Vera’s husband worked at the University and was completely innocent. There was not even a trial, yet they are starving, in the Gulag, with horrendous conditions, and must work long days while emaciated. She certainly lived a different life among the Soviets. Katerina starts to share her dreams and question the Soviet ideals. Shortly, after she goes missing.
Yuri knows of other friends who meet this same fate, but he is still holding on to The Motherland, great Russia is good, even when unfortunate events sometimes occur that he thinks are wrong.
So, I learned so much about the thinking of the Soviet people. This is not a fast paced sports story. It is much more about those within the country who live and believe in different ways. It is a story with a lot to say. I l loved the story.
Thank you, NetGalley, Rae Meadows, and Henry, Holt and Company for a copy of this book. I am always happy to leave my own review.
October 27, 2022
In the early seventies, in the Arctic mining town of Norilsk, Russia.. a young eight year old girl, Anya, is deemed an “asset to the Soviet Union” by her gymnastic abilities.
Anya’s parents had arrived in this town as a group of young people with Communist ideals… since then her mother has disappeared, her father is not healthy from the chemicals at work.
This story was riveting to me.. the intense and quite brutal training the girls went through in training..the way the Russians had to live, the other story in the book .. of their neighbor’s years spent with her husband and son in the Gulag labor camps.
I love Rae Meadows writing.. this was s wonderful read, just like her previous book that I loved, I Will Send Rain.
https://goodreads.com/book/show/28514...
Thank you to Netgalley and Henry Holt & Company for the ARC!
Anya’s parents had arrived in this town as a group of young people with Communist ideals… since then her mother has disappeared, her father is not healthy from the chemicals at work.
This story was riveting to me.. the intense and quite brutal training the girls went through in training..the way the Russians had to live, the other story in the book .. of their neighbor’s years spent with her husband and son in the Gulag labor camps.
I love Rae Meadows writing.. this was s wonderful read, just like her previous book that I loved, I Will Send Rain.
https://goodreads.com/book/show/28514...
Thank you to Netgalley and Henry Holt & Company for the ARC!
December 7, 2022
“He would not acknowledge her as a girl. Only as a gymnast”.
“She didn’t think about what was missing. The world had shrunk to the size of the gym”.
A gorgeously written—page-turning gripping historical novel about the elite USSR gymnastics world….(a specific era I remember well - having been a competitive gymnast myself in California)…
and the heartbreaking story of young Anya Yurievna Petrova.
As with any obsession—at first you love it - then you need it — [can’t live with out it] - and then . . .
….”you don’t belong to yourself anymore”.
“She didn’t think about what was missing. The world had shrunk to the size of the gym”.
A gorgeously written—page-turning gripping historical novel about the elite USSR gymnastics world….(a specific era I remember well - having been a competitive gymnast myself in California)…
and the heartbreaking story of young Anya Yurievna Petrova.
As with any obsession—at first you love it - then you need it — [can’t live with out it] - and then . . .
….”you don’t belong to yourself anymore”.
March 31, 2023
3.75 stars
As a kid growing up in the 1980s and 90s, I loved watching gymnastics. It's a sport that requires a high amount of physical and mental toughness. Even at a young age I was aware of the fact certain gymnasts had the added pressure of competing not for themselves, but for their country.
This book follows eight year old Anya, who in the early 1970s was chosen to be part of the USSR gymnastics program. Raised by her father after her mother's disappearance, Anya often spends time with her elderly neighbor, Vera, who spent 10 years in a Gulag camp. But with Anya's duty to compete at the highest level, her world now revolves around gymnastics, with little to no time for anything else.
In addition to the 1970s time period, you also get glimpses of the country's history in the early and mid parts of the 20th century. While Vera's backstory was interesting and enhanced the overall story, the transitions from Anya to Vera's parts were clunky and disjointed at times, particularly in the beginning. It took awhile, maybe to about the halfway point, until I got into a good reading groove. It's a story worth sticking with though if you like learning about Russian history and are a fan of gymnastics. It really covers the intensity of the sport quite well.
As a kid growing up in the 1980s and 90s, I loved watching gymnastics. It's a sport that requires a high amount of physical and mental toughness. Even at a young age I was aware of the fact certain gymnasts had the added pressure of competing not for themselves, but for their country.
This book follows eight year old Anya, who in the early 1970s was chosen to be part of the USSR gymnastics program. Raised by her father after her mother's disappearance, Anya often spends time with her elderly neighbor, Vera, who spent 10 years in a Gulag camp. But with Anya's duty to compete at the highest level, her world now revolves around gymnastics, with little to no time for anything else.
In addition to the 1970s time period, you also get glimpses of the country's history in the early and mid parts of the 20th century. While Vera's backstory was interesting and enhanced the overall story, the transitions from Anya to Vera's parts were clunky and disjointed at times, particularly in the beginning. It took awhile, maybe to about the halfway point, until I got into a good reading groove. It's a story worth sticking with though if you like learning about Russian history and are a fan of gymnastics. It really covers the intensity of the sport quite well.
April 4, 2023
Just like a lot of people, I watched those Russian gymnasts in the Olympics in the 70's and marveled at what they could make their bodies do. I got older and had a daughter who got into gymnastics at the age of 7. She loved the sport but was never even close to the Olympic level. Still, her heroes and role models were those American gymnasts who had made the sacrifices to get to the Olympics, she watched old films of Olga Korbut and Nadia Comaneci, she was all in, until it became apparent that she was a normal sized girl with hips and breasts, her winning days were over, so she moved on to other things.
Winterland is about the lives of those Russian girls in the 70's. Anya is recognized as having promise at the age of 8, spends 12 hours a day in the gym, giving her all for the glory of the Soviet Union. She is owned by the state, her father has no say in anything, and she moves up in the system. The system is what makes this book memorable. No friends, no relationships, always starving (gotta keep that weight in check). Work, work, work, just you and the coach. Injuries? Too bad, work through the pain, Dr. will give you a shot of something to keep going, after he feels you up while checking you over. Winning is everything, the only thing; bomb out and you're no one. Rae Meadows describes the cold, the living conditions and the lives of everyday Russians to perfection. The fear of being overheard saying something negative or not conforming, gulags, disappearances and never knowing why or where. Anya's own mother "disappeared" when she was 5. The government was cold and heartless, and so was the landscape. Little did we know watching those girls on TV what they had to go through to get there.os
Because of my years spent at meets and practices, I knew the technical names of the moves and skills, but I can imagine that might put some readers off if they didn't. Reading about the relentless cold and bleak landscape and hopelessness of the Russian people did not make this an enjoyable read either. Kudos to the author for bringing it to our attention with a riveting story and a memorable heroine.
Winterland is about the lives of those Russian girls in the 70's. Anya is recognized as having promise at the age of 8, spends 12 hours a day in the gym, giving her all for the glory of the Soviet Union. She is owned by the state, her father has no say in anything, and she moves up in the system. The system is what makes this book memorable. No friends, no relationships, always starving (gotta keep that weight in check). Work, work, work, just you and the coach. Injuries? Too bad, work through the pain, Dr. will give you a shot of something to keep going, after he feels you up while checking you over. Winning is everything, the only thing; bomb out and you're no one. Rae Meadows describes the cold, the living conditions and the lives of everyday Russians to perfection. The fear of being overheard saying something negative or not conforming, gulags, disappearances and never knowing why or where. Anya's own mother "disappeared" when she was 5. The government was cold and heartless, and so was the landscape. Little did we know watching those girls on TV what they had to go through to get there.os
Because of my years spent at meets and practices, I knew the technical names of the moves and skills, but I can imagine that might put some readers off if they didn't. Reading about the relentless cold and bleak landscape and hopelessness of the Russian people did not make this an enjoyable read either. Kudos to the author for bringing it to our attention with a riveting story and a memorable heroine.
June 16, 2022
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Pub. Date: Nov. 29, 2022
“I Will Send Rain” by Rae Meadows captivated me. Set in 1930s Oklahoma, during the dustbowls. It showcased her knack for historical fiction. Her latest historical novel, “Winterland,” is equally powerful. This time we get a look at 1970s Soviet gymnastics and its brutal culture as the athletes prepare for the Olympics. Meadows succeeds once again in restoring the urgency of a distant time and place.
In 1954, a year after the death of Stalin, a man named Yuri meets his future wife, Katerina, on the streets of Moscow. Young and ambitious, they both hope to leave their mark on modernizing the USSR. Along with their friends, they join the Communist League of Youth. From there they are sent to Norilsk, North Siberia, to mine copper. Their youthful optimism is relatable, even to an American reader. As their friends succumb to frostbite, scurvy, and starvation, they return to Moscow. Yuri and Katerina remain in Siberia, refusing to surrender their ideals. Their daughter, Anya, becomes the focus of the story.
Anya grows up in Norilsk, where we now experience the frigid Siberian landscape through a child’s eyes. Her youth is defined by the mysterious disappearance of her mother when she is six years old. Vera, an older woman who lives next door, becomes her only confidant. It is through Vera’s stories that we glimpse the dreadful details of life in the forced labor Gulag camps, where enemies of the party were sent throughout Stalin’s reign. These well-written, hard-to-read scenes are eerily reminiscent of the German concentration camps with which readers are likely more familiar.
There is plenty of Russian history in this book but its heart and soul is Anya’s life as an athlete. In 1973, at the age of nine, Anya is selected to train as a gymnast. Her childhood as she knew it was over. We watch her rise to the top of an ultra-competitive sport, always under the thumb of her abusive trainers. The author will make you cringe as Anya’s friends and teammates are worked into states of disfigurement. The trainers have no sympathy for them; it is all about money and Russian glory. When Anya’s career is over, she is forced to teach gymnastics back in Norilsk. Not much of a thank you. Following the fall of the Soviet Union, Yuri migrates to the US, as many Russians did at the time. Despite his hardships, he keeps his communist party card; the dreams of one’s youth are powerful things.
Every section of Meadows’ novel is heartbreaking in this way. From the dashed dreams of an idealist’s youth to the terror of achieving athletic excellence in a deeply corrupt system, everything is infused with its rightful poignancy. The many broader lessons of Russian history and politics conveyed throughout the novel do nothing to lessen its intimacy with Anya. “Winterland” is also sprinkled with Russian poetry, a touch that felt earned. I thought of the line from the novel “Dr. Zhivago”: “But if people love poetry, they love poets. And nobody loves poetry like a Russian.” My only criticism is that I was expecting to learn more about the disappearance of Anya’s mother. But then again, many Russians have disappeared without answers. The novel is unflinching in this way. "Winterland" is a great choice if you want to read about history while being engrossed in a captivating story.
I received this Advance Review Copy (ARC) novel from the publisher at no cost in exchange for an honest review.
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Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Pub. Date: Nov. 29, 2022
“I Will Send Rain” by Rae Meadows captivated me. Set in 1930s Oklahoma, during the dustbowls. It showcased her knack for historical fiction. Her latest historical novel, “Winterland,” is equally powerful. This time we get a look at 1970s Soviet gymnastics and its brutal culture as the athletes prepare for the Olympics. Meadows succeeds once again in restoring the urgency of a distant time and place.
In 1954, a year after the death of Stalin, a man named Yuri meets his future wife, Katerina, on the streets of Moscow. Young and ambitious, they both hope to leave their mark on modernizing the USSR. Along with their friends, they join the Communist League of Youth. From there they are sent to Norilsk, North Siberia, to mine copper. Their youthful optimism is relatable, even to an American reader. As their friends succumb to frostbite, scurvy, and starvation, they return to Moscow. Yuri and Katerina remain in Siberia, refusing to surrender their ideals. Their daughter, Anya, becomes the focus of the story.
Anya grows up in Norilsk, where we now experience the frigid Siberian landscape through a child’s eyes. Her youth is defined by the mysterious disappearance of her mother when she is six years old. Vera, an older woman who lives next door, becomes her only confidant. It is through Vera’s stories that we glimpse the dreadful details of life in the forced labor Gulag camps, where enemies of the party were sent throughout Stalin’s reign. These well-written, hard-to-read scenes are eerily reminiscent of the German concentration camps with which readers are likely more familiar.
There is plenty of Russian history in this book but its heart and soul is Anya’s life as an athlete. In 1973, at the age of nine, Anya is selected to train as a gymnast. Her childhood as she knew it was over. We watch her rise to the top of an ultra-competitive sport, always under the thumb of her abusive trainers. The author will make you cringe as Anya’s friends and teammates are worked into states of disfigurement. The trainers have no sympathy for them; it is all about money and Russian glory. When Anya’s career is over, she is forced to teach gymnastics back in Norilsk. Not much of a thank you. Following the fall of the Soviet Union, Yuri migrates to the US, as many Russians did at the time. Despite his hardships, he keeps his communist party card; the dreams of one’s youth are powerful things.
Every section of Meadows’ novel is heartbreaking in this way. From the dashed dreams of an idealist’s youth to the terror of achieving athletic excellence in a deeply corrupt system, everything is infused with its rightful poignancy. The many broader lessons of Russian history and politics conveyed throughout the novel do nothing to lessen its intimacy with Anya. “Winterland” is also sprinkled with Russian poetry, a touch that felt earned. I thought of the line from the novel “Dr. Zhivago”: “But if people love poetry, they love poets. And nobody loves poetry like a Russian.” My only criticism is that I was expecting to learn more about the disappearance of Anya’s mother. But then again, many Russians have disappeared without answers. The novel is unflinching in this way. "Winterland" is a great choice if you want to read about history while being engrossed in a captivating story.
I received this Advance Review Copy (ARC) novel from the publisher at no cost in exchange for an honest review.
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February 20, 2023
“You could not destroy your past or what it does to you, he knew. It’s never really over. But you could name it and put it off to the side”.
With the bleak tundra and even bleaker history of Stalin’s USSR gripping Anya and her father Yuri, the state’s obsession with training Olympic winning gymnasts opens a new world when the little girl is noticed at her public school. While her father toils in the poisonous copper refinery, Anya undergoes the brutal training which will help to bring more funds home and serve her country.
The elderly Vera, a survivor of Stalin’s political cleansing, has been Anya’s caregiver after school and since the mysterious disappearance of mother Katerina, when the girl was five years old. Yuri is filled with faith in the creation of the socialist dream; Vera has lived through its worst nightmares. Anya represents their hope for life- renewal.
Gymnasts of renown appear- Ludmilla Tourischeva, Olga Korbut, Nellie Kim, Nadia Comăneci- essential to the plot and Anya’s progress in this story. Elena Mukhina and Anya become fictional friends. The love of the sport shines while it takes its enormous psychic and physical toll, and the grinding system chews coaches, children, young women into bits seeking public glory.
‘“Have you read Ernest Hemingway?” Elena asked. He said that there are two things necessary for a country to become fascinated with bullfighting. First, the bulls have to have been bred in that country, and second, its people have to be interested in death. And it made me think about us.”
“We were the bulls.”’
An exquisite novel, tragic, almost painterly of the Russian landscape and its people, loving and caring in its intimate portrayal of those we come to know best. An absolute diamond of a book. Can’t recommend it enough.
With the bleak tundra and even bleaker history of Stalin’s USSR gripping Anya and her father Yuri, the state’s obsession with training Olympic winning gymnasts opens a new world when the little girl is noticed at her public school. While her father toils in the poisonous copper refinery, Anya undergoes the brutal training which will help to bring more funds home and serve her country.
The elderly Vera, a survivor of Stalin’s political cleansing, has been Anya’s caregiver after school and since the mysterious disappearance of mother Katerina, when the girl was five years old. Yuri is filled with faith in the creation of the socialist dream; Vera has lived through its worst nightmares. Anya represents their hope for life- renewal.
Gymnasts of renown appear- Ludmilla Tourischeva, Olga Korbut, Nellie Kim, Nadia Comăneci- essential to the plot and Anya’s progress in this story. Elena Mukhina and Anya become fictional friends. The love of the sport shines while it takes its enormous psychic and physical toll, and the grinding system chews coaches, children, young women into bits seeking public glory.
‘“Have you read Ernest Hemingway?” Elena asked. He said that there are two things necessary for a country to become fascinated with bullfighting. First, the bulls have to have been bred in that country, and second, its people have to be interested in death. And it made me think about us.”
“We were the bulls.”’
An exquisite novel, tragic, almost painterly of the Russian landscape and its people, loving and caring in its intimate portrayal of those we come to know best. An absolute diamond of a book. Can’t recommend it enough.
October 5, 2022
They were idealistic young people who volunteered to move north of the Arctic Circle to mine copper, for the country, for the people, believing themselves “the true builders of Communism.” Yuri, and his wife Katerina who left behind a career with the Bolshoi Ballet, their friends Irina and Vitka the poet.
Vitka was denounced and rehabilitated. Katherina disappeared. Yuri’s health was breaking down from exposure to chemicals at his job. Their daughter Anya had her mother’s grace, drive, and facility and is chosen to study gymnastics, to train for the Olympics.
Yuri believed in the Communist dream of equality, the importance of his work. But all around them were people who had survived their internment in the camps and stayed on. They had been imprisoned by Stalin for owning too many cattle and horses, for being landowners, for “murky political charges,” for writing poetry that “promoted the cult of the individual” of which Vitka was accused. Anya’s neighbor Vera was one of these survivors, her husband and son starved or murdered in the camps. She remains for them, and out of the guilt of what it took to survive. Vera told her story to Katerina, causing her questioning of the political system she had believed in. The forbidden poetry of Marina Tsvetaeva also set in motion Katerina’s questioning. Why was there no room for art and love in Communism?
Anya saw gymnastics as her way out of Norilag. She loved the challenge. It was an honor to be chosen to train for the Olympics, to bring glory to one’s country. Her role model was Olga Korbut. Anya’s life would be controlled by her trainer until she was eighteen, when she moved on to a state job,
The story of Anya’s training is brutal, for the girl has no value unless she can do the impossible, and win. When she is hurt, she is given injections and forced to continue training before she heals. The coaches are tyrants, determining how long the girls train, what they eat. what they will do. Anya is stubborn. She does the impossible. She is on her way to the Olympics. She meets an older gymnast, Elena, and they develop a deep love. Anya finds her mother’s forbidden copies of poems and shares them with Elena. After an injury, Elena is pushed too far and a failure results in tragedy.
Anya’s story is an emotional read. Vera and Yuri and Katerina’s stories give depth and insight into Soviet history. Theirs is a story of Idealism meeting cruel reality, patriotism questioned, learning one’s country does not care about the individual, learning how evil flourished.
Meadows manages to describe the world and training of gymnastics in a way that holds the reader’s interest, drawing from her own love of 1970s Soviet Olympic contenders in gymnastics and her own experience and training.
At it’s root, the character’s suffering stems from the state. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Anya and Yuri, poisoned by copper, immigrated to America, living with other homesick Russians in Brooklyn, sharing a nostalgia for what no longer existed, and perhaps never did.
We knew a Russian exchange student who was in America while during the collapse. Yuri had high hopes for the future, believing that his country could reinvent itself. He was excited to return home. I often wonder what happened when he returned to a country in disarray.
Patriotism can drive one to do illogical things. Katerina once danced for Stalin, but follows Yuri into a brutal wilderness. Yuri’s health is ruined without protection against the copper. The gymnasts’ mental and physical well being are ignored in the quest for Olympic glory to prove the state’s superiority. They try to ignore the legacy of the camps.
It’s a warning to us all.
I received a free egalley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.
Vitka was denounced and rehabilitated. Katherina disappeared. Yuri’s health was breaking down from exposure to chemicals at his job. Their daughter Anya had her mother’s grace, drive, and facility and is chosen to study gymnastics, to train for the Olympics.
Yuri believed in the Communist dream of equality, the importance of his work. But all around them were people who had survived their internment in the camps and stayed on. They had been imprisoned by Stalin for owning too many cattle and horses, for being landowners, for “murky political charges,” for writing poetry that “promoted the cult of the individual” of which Vitka was accused. Anya’s neighbor Vera was one of these survivors, her husband and son starved or murdered in the camps. She remains for them, and out of the guilt of what it took to survive. Vera told her story to Katerina, causing her questioning of the political system she had believed in. The forbidden poetry of Marina Tsvetaeva also set in motion Katerina’s questioning. Why was there no room for art and love in Communism?
Anya saw gymnastics as her way out of Norilag. She loved the challenge. It was an honor to be chosen to train for the Olympics, to bring glory to one’s country. Her role model was Olga Korbut. Anya’s life would be controlled by her trainer until she was eighteen, when she moved on to a state job,
The story of Anya’s training is brutal, for the girl has no value unless she can do the impossible, and win. When she is hurt, she is given injections and forced to continue training before she heals. The coaches are tyrants, determining how long the girls train, what they eat. what they will do. Anya is stubborn. She does the impossible. She is on her way to the Olympics. She meets an older gymnast, Elena, and they develop a deep love. Anya finds her mother’s forbidden copies of poems and shares them with Elena. After an injury, Elena is pushed too far and a failure results in tragedy.
Anya’s story is an emotional read. Vera and Yuri and Katerina’s stories give depth and insight into Soviet history. Theirs is a story of Idealism meeting cruel reality, patriotism questioned, learning one’s country does not care about the individual, learning how evil flourished.
Meadows manages to describe the world and training of gymnastics in a way that holds the reader’s interest, drawing from her own love of 1970s Soviet Olympic contenders in gymnastics and her own experience and training.
At it’s root, the character’s suffering stems from the state. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Anya and Yuri, poisoned by copper, immigrated to America, living with other homesick Russians in Brooklyn, sharing a nostalgia for what no longer existed, and perhaps never did.
We knew a Russian exchange student who was in America while during the collapse. Yuri had high hopes for the future, believing that his country could reinvent itself. He was excited to return home. I often wonder what happened when he returned to a country in disarray.
Patriotism can drive one to do illogical things. Katerina once danced for Stalin, but follows Yuri into a brutal wilderness. Yuri’s health is ruined without protection against the copper. The gymnasts’ mental and physical well being are ignored in the quest for Olympic glory to prove the state’s superiority. They try to ignore the legacy of the camps.
It’s a warning to us all.
I received a free egalley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.
November 28, 2022
I was drawn into this novel from the first page. A coming-of-age story set in Siberia? A motherless gymnast who is invited to train for a coveted spot on the Soviet Olympic team? Yes, please! But that's only one layer of this multi-layered story about sports, survivors, and how people overcome the overwhelming power of loneliness. Anya, our young gymnast, is also friends with a neighbor named Vera. Vera is a holocaust survivor. Despite all she has endured, she have nothing but love, kindness, and warmth for Anya.
Rae Meadows did an incredible job placing the reader in the gym with Anya. I saw every minute of her drilling, exercising, starvation, humiliation, strength, and success. I saw her fall off every apparatus and I watched her fall in love. I held my breath when she was injured and worried about her mental health. After she leaves the sport, the plot lost its urgency and it felt like the lights just faded on the scene onstage, but overall, it was a fascinating read.
Rae Meadows did an incredible job placing the reader in the gym with Anya. I saw every minute of her drilling, exercising, starvation, humiliation, strength, and success. I saw her fall off every apparatus and I watched her fall in love. I held my breath when she was injured and worried about her mental health. After she leaves the sport, the plot lost its urgency and it felt like the lights just faded on the scene onstage, but overall, it was a fascinating read.
October 12, 2022
Fascinating historical fiction centered around a young girl training for the Soviet Union gymnastics in the 1970's. The training of this little girl is truly savage, forcing her to continue training when injured, injecting her with pain meds to keep her going. It's an emotional read. Something for all to read in these troubled days in America, giving readers a close look at an authoritarian government and what it means for its citizens.
This book was won at Library Thing. Thank you to the publisher for this copy.
This book was won at Library Thing. Thank you to the publisher for this copy.
August 2, 2025
Oh, that cover!!! Look at her! Once I began reading I was thrown back into the 70's when we were all about the Olympics, gymnastics, Olga K, the terrible killings, all newly taking up TV space and we loved it.
Anya's story begins in 1973, and everything we ever thought about the difficult lives in the Soviet Union pretty much plays out on these pages. But all that hard work and strictness changed that fluffy sport all about costumes, into a real sport with steely skills thrown down as a challenge to the world. Rae Meadows weaves in social context, political riskiness, and Anya begins to realize although she's climbing upwards, there are young women who are easily beyond her. In a world where your score is your value and life. . .what to do?
In this read I had a chance to examine a time I lived through, but truly know very little about - the Soviet Union, soon to be Russia. Those were the Cold War days when one wasn't encouraged to think about *communists*. Anya and Vera as tour-guides of their respective times unlocked some of the gates I didn't even know were in my head. That's the best thing about books - mind-changers!
25|52:9b
Anya's story begins in 1973, and everything we ever thought about the difficult lives in the Soviet Union pretty much plays out on these pages. But all that hard work and strictness changed that fluffy sport all about costumes, into a real sport with steely skills thrown down as a challenge to the world. Rae Meadows weaves in social context, political riskiness, and Anya begins to realize although she's climbing upwards, there are young women who are easily beyond her. In a world where your score is your value and life. . .what to do?
In this read I had a chance to examine a time I lived through, but truly know very little about - the Soviet Union, soon to be Russia. Those were the Cold War days when one wasn't encouraged to think about *communists*. Anya and Vera as tour-guides of their respective times unlocked some of the gates I didn't even know were in my head. That's the best thing about books - mind-changers!
25|52:9b
August 3, 2022
When the author of "Winterland" reached out to me asking if I would be interested in an ARC of her novel about gymnastics in the 1970s Soviet Union, I smashed YES so hard on my keyboard. This is the story of Anya, an eight-year-old girl from the Arctic city of Norilsk selected to train as a gymnast in the mining city's sports school. We experience decades of Soviet life through both her eyes as well as the lens of the people in her life, including her father, Yuri, who traveled east to Siberia in hopes of making the country great; her elderly neighbor, Vera, a privileged child of a wealthy family in Imperialist Russia-turned-Gulag survivor; and at times, Anya's mother, Katerina, a former ballerina who disappears when Anya is five.
Gymnastics, and the Soviet sport system in general, is at the core of this story, as we follow Anya from her first days learning handsprings and aerials all the way through to her career as a rising star for the USSR in the lead-up to the Moscow Games. The sport is handled perfectly here, in a way that is both deeply technical about drills and skills but also easy to understand for those who have never even attempted a somersault; despite some jargon – e.g. tsukahara, double back, hollow-body cast – that may not be widely known, there's always enough of a description so that even the least gymnastics-fluent reader can get a sense of the skills being done, how difficult (and sometimes dangerous) they are, and what the athlete's body goes through to execute them perfectly.
I personally loved the little Easter Eggs in here for the most hardcore gym fans. The coach yelling, "What kind of try was that? A quitter's try?" when disappointed with a gymnast's performance and another character's snarky "next thing you know, she will take credit for the handstand" comment re: Nellie Kim and the Code of Points were both references that made me truly laugh out loud.
And then there's also a reference more crucial to the plot that people who follow the sport will also recognized right away, as soon as the character is introduced. While most of the Soviets portrayed are real people who existed and competed with their actual results part of the story as Anya joins the national team, one character has a different last name, though her first name and story are the same. She and Anya become the best of friends, two motherless girls finally finding a person they've both desperately needed who can lean on each other during the best and the worst moments in their careers.
I also thought the use of real-life athletes mixing with wholly or partly fictional characters was done really well. In a way, it felt kind of like Soviet gymnastics fanfic, but realistic and respectful. At first I was like, how will this work with the bigger meets and results and everything, compared to an entirely fictional world where you can do whatever you want? But in the end it works out perfectly, and I found it to be really smart.
While gymnastics is the center of this story, it's not the only part. In a way, it connects to everything, because gymnastics as a sport was an extension of the Soviet system as a whole, especially in the lead-up to the dissolution of the USSR as the sport continued to exist as a symbol of Soviet supremacy even while the system itself was falling apart. As a gymnast, Anya belongs to the state, and exists to win medals not for her own personal glory but for her country's and only her country's. Even at eight, she realizes her life is no longer her own, and both she and her father take a sort of pride in that even as it destroys her body and soul. As she gets older, we begin to see her try and learn who she is without gymnastics, something she can't even fathom at 12, but mostly we see just how connected the self and the state were, both within the sport and outside of it, as her journey and experiences mirror every Soviet person's in different ways.
Outside of the sport, Anya has a fascinating family history, and part of her life is still in Norilsk even when the sport seems to fully take over. Most of the story outside of gymnastics revolves around Anya's parents, including how they met, their journey to the east, and their life in Norilsk, which is unlike anything they could have imagined. The mystery of Katerina's disappearance also drives a good deal of the plot, as do the secrets held by neighbor Vera, whose life story is fascinating, spanning all the way back through her privileged childhood in the Russian Empire, what happened to her family during and after the Revolution, a decade spent in the Gulag for her husband's "crime" against the state, and the life she had no choice but to build alone after her release. Her own history is fascinating, as is the Soviet history that drives the direction of her life and the lives of Anya and her parents, and I also loved the connection Vera had with both Katerina and then Anya.
I was very excited to find out this book existed, and my already super high expectations for it were exceeded. I couldn't put it down, and even when I knew what would be happening next, I still couldn't wait to read how the author would have it unfold. Executed with Nadia levels of perfection, it's a must-read for fans of gymnastics. If you're not already a fan? This book will make you one.
Gymnastics, and the Soviet sport system in general, is at the core of this story, as we follow Anya from her first days learning handsprings and aerials all the way through to her career as a rising star for the USSR in the lead-up to the Moscow Games. The sport is handled perfectly here, in a way that is both deeply technical about drills and skills but also easy to understand for those who have never even attempted a somersault; despite some jargon – e.g. tsukahara, double back, hollow-body cast – that may not be widely known, there's always enough of a description so that even the least gymnastics-fluent reader can get a sense of the skills being done, how difficult (and sometimes dangerous) they are, and what the athlete's body goes through to execute them perfectly.
I personally loved the little Easter Eggs in here for the most hardcore gym fans. The coach yelling, "What kind of try was that? A quitter's try?" when disappointed with a gymnast's performance and another character's snarky "next thing you know, she will take credit for the handstand" comment re: Nellie Kim and the Code of Points were both references that made me truly laugh out loud.
And then there's also a reference more crucial to the plot that people who follow the sport will also recognized right away, as soon as the character is introduced. While most of the Soviets portrayed are real people who existed and competed with their actual results part of the story as Anya joins the national team, one character has a different last name, though her first name and story are the same. She and Anya become the best of friends, two motherless girls finally finding a person they've both desperately needed who can lean on each other during the best and the worst moments in their careers.
I also thought the use of real-life athletes mixing with wholly or partly fictional characters was done really well. In a way, it felt kind of like Soviet gymnastics fanfic, but realistic and respectful. At first I was like, how will this work with the bigger meets and results and everything, compared to an entirely fictional world where you can do whatever you want? But in the end it works out perfectly, and I found it to be really smart.
While gymnastics is the center of this story, it's not the only part. In a way, it connects to everything, because gymnastics as a sport was an extension of the Soviet system as a whole, especially in the lead-up to the dissolution of the USSR as the sport continued to exist as a symbol of Soviet supremacy even while the system itself was falling apart. As a gymnast, Anya belongs to the state, and exists to win medals not for her own personal glory but for her country's and only her country's. Even at eight, she realizes her life is no longer her own, and both she and her father take a sort of pride in that even as it destroys her body and soul. As she gets older, we begin to see her try and learn who she is without gymnastics, something she can't even fathom at 12, but mostly we see just how connected the self and the state were, both within the sport and outside of it, as her journey and experiences mirror every Soviet person's in different ways.
Outside of the sport, Anya has a fascinating family history, and part of her life is still in Norilsk even when the sport seems to fully take over. Most of the story outside of gymnastics revolves around Anya's parents, including how they met, their journey to the east, and their life in Norilsk, which is unlike anything they could have imagined. The mystery of Katerina's disappearance also drives a good deal of the plot, as do the secrets held by neighbor Vera, whose life story is fascinating, spanning all the way back through her privileged childhood in the Russian Empire, what happened to her family during and after the Revolution, a decade spent in the Gulag for her husband's "crime" against the state, and the life she had no choice but to build alone after her release. Her own history is fascinating, as is the Soviet history that drives the direction of her life and the lives of Anya and her parents, and I also loved the connection Vera had with both Katerina and then Anya.
I was very excited to find out this book existed, and my already super high expectations for it were exceeded. I couldn't put it down, and even when I knew what would be happening next, I still couldn't wait to read how the author would have it unfold. Executed with Nadia levels of perfection, it's a must-read for fans of gymnastics. If you're not already a fan? This book will make you one.
January 19, 2023
When I was growing up in the 70s, I loved the brief glimpses of Olympic gymnasts like Nadia Comaneci and Olga Korbut on TV, with their cute pigtails, white ribbons and sleek bodysuits. I endlessly tried to do a cartwheel on the school field in front of my friends who would give me a score of 4 or 5. This book brought back all those memories.
In 1973, Anya is a 5 year old child who is selected to train full-time as a Soviet gymnast. She recognizes the honor bestowed on her and takes her 6-day/week training seriously. Her life takes place in the gym where she learns how to use the equipment and perform new combinations, receiving harsh coaching and always teetering on the edge between glory and self-destruction.
As she grows older, she begins to wonder about the world outside of her Siberian village. She tries to come to terms with her missing mother and piece together the stories of her elderly neighbor's prison camp experiences. Most of all, she longs to be outside, hearing birdsong and seeing cherry blossoms.
She finds love with Elena, her roommate at the Round Lake gymnasts compound. Together they talk of a future that neither believe is attainable and of the deep fear they have while training. With Elena in her life, Anya believes anything is possible. But then the two are torn apart which results in the crumbling of their gymnastic careers.
Meadows does a fantastic job of putting us inside the mind of a determined young girl and the single-mindedness required to be successful in artistic gymnastics. The girls are pushed to perform moves that male champion gymnasts do and their injuries are commonplace. While reading this book, I had to keep looking up YouTube videos of Comaneci and Korbut, as well as the performances of Elena Mukhina and the floor tumbling sequence (called the Thomas salto) which cost her dearly.
This beautiful tale hit so many marks for me and I know that it will be a book that I highly recommend to friends.
In 1973, Anya is a 5 year old child who is selected to train full-time as a Soviet gymnast. She recognizes the honor bestowed on her and takes her 6-day/week training seriously. Her life takes place in the gym where she learns how to use the equipment and perform new combinations, receiving harsh coaching and always teetering on the edge between glory and self-destruction.
As she grows older, she begins to wonder about the world outside of her Siberian village. She tries to come to terms with her missing mother and piece together the stories of her elderly neighbor's prison camp experiences. Most of all, she longs to be outside, hearing birdsong and seeing cherry blossoms.
She finds love with Elena, her roommate at the Round Lake gymnasts compound. Together they talk of a future that neither believe is attainable and of the deep fear they have while training. With Elena in her life, Anya believes anything is possible. But then the two are torn apart which results in the crumbling of their gymnastic careers.
Meadows does a fantastic job of putting us inside the mind of a determined young girl and the single-mindedness required to be successful in artistic gymnastics. The girls are pushed to perform moves that male champion gymnasts do and their injuries are commonplace. While reading this book, I had to keep looking up YouTube videos of Comaneci and Korbut, as well as the performances of Elena Mukhina and the floor tumbling sequence (called the Thomas salto) which cost her dearly.
This beautiful tale hit so many marks for me and I know that it will be a book that I highly recommend to friends.
October 19, 2022
“First you just love it. Second you need it; you cannot live without it. Third is when you realize you don’t belong to yourself anymore. Fourth is when you still want it, but nobody wants you anymore.”- Winterland
It’s 1973, Soviet Union, a time when every girl wants to be THE best gymnast and bring home the gold for Russia. Anya lives with her father and still doesn’t know what happened to her mother since she disappeared years ago. At age eight is given the opportunity to join the USSR gymnastics program. Anya at a young age is dedicated and spends extra hours in the gym for practice. As she gets older she starts to improve her skills to eventually make it to the Olympics and get a gold. She begins to understand how corrupt her country is as well as gymnastics; mistreatment to athletes with doctors/coaches. No one is above the law no matter how good of a gymnast you are.
Thank you Henry Holt Books for giving me a copy of Winterland for an honest review. This is a solid read. There were moments where I felt it was slow but it was still compelling. I do not know much about gymnastics or the Soviet Union and the book was able to hold my interest and educate me. I cannot imagine loving a sport so much that you’d be willing to kill yourself to be on top. It pains me to think what many of these girls went through at such a young age with not only what they put their bodies through but what the men in charge did to them. Heartbreaking story that I’d recommend to those who love historical fiction or gymnastics!
3.5 ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️.5
It’s 1973, Soviet Union, a time when every girl wants to be THE best gymnast and bring home the gold for Russia. Anya lives with her father and still doesn’t know what happened to her mother since she disappeared years ago. At age eight is given the opportunity to join the USSR gymnastics program. Anya at a young age is dedicated and spends extra hours in the gym for practice. As she gets older she starts to improve her skills to eventually make it to the Olympics and get a gold. She begins to understand how corrupt her country is as well as gymnastics; mistreatment to athletes with doctors/coaches. No one is above the law no matter how good of a gymnast you are.
Thank you Henry Holt Books for giving me a copy of Winterland for an honest review. This is a solid read. There were moments where I felt it was slow but it was still compelling. I do not know much about gymnastics or the Soviet Union and the book was able to hold my interest and educate me. I cannot imagine loving a sport so much that you’d be willing to kill yourself to be on top. It pains me to think what many of these girls went through at such a young age with not only what they put their bodies through but what the men in charge did to them. Heartbreaking story that I’d recommend to those who love historical fiction or gymnastics!
3.5 ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️.5
October 11, 2022
Winterland knocked my socks off. It was almost impossible to put down and I stayed up until 3 am last night in order to finish it.
The novel is about Anya, a gifted gymnast in Siberian Russia who is chosen to represent the Soviet Regime. From the age of six, she is chosen and is under the control of her coach, Anatoly. Anatoly cares about training Anya to win for the Soviets and has little regard for her as a human being. The narrative takes us from Anya's early childhood to her adult years.
Anya is from Norilsk, a city north of the Arctic Circle where temperatures reach -40 degrees Fahrenheit in the winter, and darkness prevails except for the short interval of summer. It is known for the mining of nickel and for the prisoner camp that once was situated there. Anya lives with her father Yuri. Her mother, Katarina, disappeared when Anya was very young. Once a promising ballerina with the Bolshoi, Katarina left her home one day and never returned. No one is sure of her fate. Anya misses her dearly and envisions her coming home one day.
This novel is heavy with propaganda about the Soviet Regime, the communist party, and its philosophy. Individualism is frowned upon and voicing an opinion that does not support the state's, is likely to get you imprisoned in the Gulag for ten years. Anyone can turn you in for a real or imagined digression. It reminded me of Ayn Rand's novel, 'We the Living'. Anya's parents and a group of their friends traveled to Norilsk from Moscow in their young adulthood, filled with idealism for the communist regime. Most of them have lost faith in communism but Anya's father, Yuri, is still a believer.
It was very painful to watch the way that young gymnasts were treated and what they had to endure. Anya severely hurt her ankle when she was about 10 years old and it was never allowed to heal properly. Injections into her ankle that numbed it allowed her to continuer with her practicing but her ankle never healed properly. This was common practice. The doctors were beholden to the State and the only goal was 'Gold' at the olympics.
Anya practices from morning until night six days a week. She loves to visit Vera, a neighbor in her apartment building who spent ten years in a labor camp and once was a confidante of Katarina's. Vera tells Anya about Katarina and gives her chocolate which is forbidden by Anatoly. In fact, Anya is hungry most of the time because the State wants her to remain thin and childlike, without breasts, hips, and never menstruating.
Anya is devoted to gymnastics. It is her heart and soul. She strives to be the best and dreams of winning gold in the olympics. She ignores her pain, her exhaustion, and will repeat a move until she can barely stand up. She is alone except for her father, her father's girlfriend, and Vera. One day, however, she meets Elena, another promising gymnast, who becomes her best and closest friend.
There is a lot going on in this novel and the narrative is told from different perspectives and from different time periods. This technique works wonderfully as the author has a close grip on her character's lives. The characterizations are superb. Each person comes alive for the reader and there is no character who isn't fully developed. My only critique is of the ending which I felt was tacked on. Otherwise, this book is a marvel.
Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt publishers for providing me with an Advanced Review Copy.
The novel is about Anya, a gifted gymnast in Siberian Russia who is chosen to represent the Soviet Regime. From the age of six, she is chosen and is under the control of her coach, Anatoly. Anatoly cares about training Anya to win for the Soviets and has little regard for her as a human being. The narrative takes us from Anya's early childhood to her adult years.
Anya is from Norilsk, a city north of the Arctic Circle where temperatures reach -40 degrees Fahrenheit in the winter, and darkness prevails except for the short interval of summer. It is known for the mining of nickel and for the prisoner camp that once was situated there. Anya lives with her father Yuri. Her mother, Katarina, disappeared when Anya was very young. Once a promising ballerina with the Bolshoi, Katarina left her home one day and never returned. No one is sure of her fate. Anya misses her dearly and envisions her coming home one day.
This novel is heavy with propaganda about the Soviet Regime, the communist party, and its philosophy. Individualism is frowned upon and voicing an opinion that does not support the state's, is likely to get you imprisoned in the Gulag for ten years. Anyone can turn you in for a real or imagined digression. It reminded me of Ayn Rand's novel, 'We the Living'. Anya's parents and a group of their friends traveled to Norilsk from Moscow in their young adulthood, filled with idealism for the communist regime. Most of them have lost faith in communism but Anya's father, Yuri, is still a believer.
It was very painful to watch the way that young gymnasts were treated and what they had to endure. Anya severely hurt her ankle when she was about 10 years old and it was never allowed to heal properly. Injections into her ankle that numbed it allowed her to continuer with her practicing but her ankle never healed properly. This was common practice. The doctors were beholden to the State and the only goal was 'Gold' at the olympics.
Anya practices from morning until night six days a week. She loves to visit Vera, a neighbor in her apartment building who spent ten years in a labor camp and once was a confidante of Katarina's. Vera tells Anya about Katarina and gives her chocolate which is forbidden by Anatoly. In fact, Anya is hungry most of the time because the State wants her to remain thin and childlike, without breasts, hips, and never menstruating.
Anya is devoted to gymnastics. It is her heart and soul. She strives to be the best and dreams of winning gold in the olympics. She ignores her pain, her exhaustion, and will repeat a move until she can barely stand up. She is alone except for her father, her father's girlfriend, and Vera. One day, however, she meets Elena, another promising gymnast, who becomes her best and closest friend.
There is a lot going on in this novel and the narrative is told from different perspectives and from different time periods. This technique works wonderfully as the author has a close grip on her character's lives. The characterizations are superb. Each person comes alive for the reader and there is no character who isn't fully developed. My only critique is of the ending which I felt was tacked on. Otherwise, this book is a marvel.
Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt publishers for providing me with an Advanced Review Copy.
October 20, 2022
In 1953, Anya is 8 years old living in Norilsk, Siberia with her father, when she competes for a coveted position in the Soviet Union gymnastics team. Her mother, Katerina, was a well-respected ballerina who disappeared without a trace three years earlier. The memories of Katerina haunt both Anya and her father. Living in their apartment complex is Vera, who suffered the unimaginable loss of her husband and only child during the purge of political dissidents in the Gulag camp. Her harrowing story parallels Anya's. When Katerina begins to question the Soviet ideals, she shares her skepticism with Vera, who is very frightened for Katerina. She knows full well the punishment that Russia can inflict.
When Anya is accepted as a member of the Soviet team, her life begins a trajectory that is riveting. She now belongs to the Soviet Union, and she is no longer a child, but a commodity. Her father is financially compensated for his daughter's participation. Her training is rigorous, and pain is to be ignored and managed with injections rather than rest. Academics are of little interest to those overseeing the training of the gymnasts. The goal is ultimately to win Olympic gold for Russia. There are many names that are familiar to those of us who watch the gymnastic competition with awe at their accomplishments. The toil the training took on the competitors is staggering, and they are essentially discarded with no education when no longer able to compete.
The last part of the book takes place in Brooklyn in 1998. Anya is a waitress in a Russian restaurant, and her father is in a nursing home. She is finally able to locate and visit her dear friend and fellow gymnast in Russia, who is a quadriplegic after an accident that occured during gymnastics training. There is a bittersweet poignancy to their memories of training and competing together. By 1998, much has changed within the Russia they once knew.
This is a horrifying look into the psyche and history of the Fatherland in the mid-20th century, and particularly disturbing given the current situation with Ukraine. This is a book worth reading and well worth a 5-star rating. I am grateful to LibraryThing and the publisher for the opportunity to read it.
When Anya is accepted as a member of the Soviet team, her life begins a trajectory that is riveting. She now belongs to the Soviet Union, and she is no longer a child, but a commodity. Her father is financially compensated for his daughter's participation. Her training is rigorous, and pain is to be ignored and managed with injections rather than rest. Academics are of little interest to those overseeing the training of the gymnasts. The goal is ultimately to win Olympic gold for Russia. There are many names that are familiar to those of us who watch the gymnastic competition with awe at their accomplishments. The toil the training took on the competitors is staggering, and they are essentially discarded with no education when no longer able to compete.
The last part of the book takes place in Brooklyn in 1998. Anya is a waitress in a Russian restaurant, and her father is in a nursing home. She is finally able to locate and visit her dear friend and fellow gymnast in Russia, who is a quadriplegic after an accident that occured during gymnastics training. There is a bittersweet poignancy to their memories of training and competing together. By 1998, much has changed within the Russia they once knew.
This is a horrifying look into the psyche and history of the Fatherland in the mid-20th century, and particularly disturbing given the current situation with Ukraine. This is a book worth reading and well worth a 5-star rating. I am grateful to LibraryThing and the publisher for the opportunity to read it.
November 17, 2022
Winterland is such a "Sarah" book (the story of a Russian gymnast in the Cold War era Soviet Union), but the execution didn't live up to expectations. The story is told in 2 arcs: Anya’s experience being chosen by the Russian Sports ministry to train to possibly join the National Team and the impact this had on her and her family AND Vera’s story (an older woman who lives in Anya’s apartment building and spent a considerable amount of time in one of the Soviet work camps). I loved Anya's gymnastics storyline: the loneliness, pressure and fear of failure, the lack of care for these athletes as humans, what it’s like to train at Round Lake (the real life National Team compound), and the small places she was able to find joy. BUT…I glazed over whenever we switched over to Vera’s story. It felt very straight up Historical Fiction (which isn’t my favorite) and I didn’t feel like it added much to the story. I also felt like including both storylines in such a short book (288 pages) made both of them feel a bit surface level. Readers who love traditional Historical Fiction might like Winterland more than I did.
December 16, 2022
This novel is centered around Anya, a young Soviet athlete who carries the hopes of her community. Talented at gymnastics, Anya begins training at a very young age and when she comes to the attention of a demanding coach, the sport begins to take over her life. Anya spends more time with her coach than her father, she travels far beyond the distant city within the Artic Circle that was her home, she receives injections so that she can continue to compete despite an ankle injury, and she's put on a restrictive diet that keeps her from going through puberty. At times, this makes for a difficult reading and the narrative does have a tendency to jump between perspectives. Still, I enjoyed this novel and I found the story compelling overall. Those interested in historical fiction set in the Soviet Union would likely enjoy this novel.
December 23, 2022
What a great book with which to end the year! This is the story of a Soviet gymnast and it contains many elements of Soviet life as well as gymnastics. Our heroine, Anya, is from a town above the Arctic circle, where her true believer communist parents went to work for the good of the Motherland. At the beginning we see that her mother has lost her communist zeal and disappears (we know not where). Anya is raised by her father and is also close to an elderly woman who is a Gulag survivor. Anya has great talent for gymnastics. We watch as her intense, often brutal (and never humane) training takes her ultimately to the Olympics. We see deep inside the life of an elite gymnast – the pressure, the pain, but also the personal desire. We see horrific injuries from athletes being pushed to accomplish harder moves (of which they are fearful). We see Anya’s worth as being only in the level of her performance for the Motherland. Soviet life is drawn in great detail, and the underlying tension of being “required” to believe in a system of government that ultimately unworkable is ever present. This is my second novel by this author, and it will not be my last.
June 12, 2025
***Thanks to NetGalley for providing me a complimentary copy of WINTERLAND by Rae Meadows in exchange for my honest review.***
3.5 STARS
In 1973, at age eight, Anya is selected for a special sports school in the USSR, hoping she’ll one day do her country honor as an Olympic gymnast. Abandoned by her ballerina mother three years earlier and raised by her hard-working father, Anya’s gymnastics also brings badly needed funds to her struggling family.
Told from the years 1973, 1977 and 1998 Anya’s rise and fall, the friendships longed for, made and lost and and her family’s struggles are recounted in Rae Meadows’s latest historical fiction.
The world needs more gymnastics books. I’m old enough to remember Anya’s idol, Olga Korbut competing at the Olympics though I only remembered Nellie Kim and Nadia among the other gymnasts fictionalized for WINTERLAND. I remember the stronghold the Soviet Union had on gymnastics. I remember hearing athletes speak the words, “I defect” and the excitement of knowing someone chose freedom, at great risk to his or her life. Until reading WINTERLAND, I never realized families of such athletes could be penalized.
I liked WINTERLAND because I’m a gymnastics fan, but found the story slow and depressing. To be fair, historical fiction isn’t usually my genre, but I’ll read anything related to gymnastics.
3.5 STARS
In 1973, at age eight, Anya is selected for a special sports school in the USSR, hoping she’ll one day do her country honor as an Olympic gymnast. Abandoned by her ballerina mother three years earlier and raised by her hard-working father, Anya’s gymnastics also brings badly needed funds to her struggling family.
Told from the years 1973, 1977 and 1998 Anya’s rise and fall, the friendships longed for, made and lost and and her family’s struggles are recounted in Rae Meadows’s latest historical fiction.
The world needs more gymnastics books. I’m old enough to remember Anya’s idol, Olga Korbut competing at the Olympics though I only remembered Nellie Kim and Nadia among the other gymnasts fictionalized for WINTERLAND. I remember the stronghold the Soviet Union had on gymnastics. I remember hearing athletes speak the words, “I defect” and the excitement of knowing someone chose freedom, at great risk to his or her life. Until reading WINTERLAND, I never realized families of such athletes could be penalized.
I liked WINTERLAND because I’m a gymnastics fan, but found the story slow and depressing. To be fair, historical fiction isn’t usually my genre, but I’ll read anything related to gymnastics.
March 26, 2023
A book detailing the harsh training processes used by Russia in the sport of gymnastics. Gymnastics is punishing enough simply in the execution of it, but to read about the abuses piled on top of that was disheartening. And I'm sure quite real. When a national identity gets tied up in the gifts and skills of young people, when the governing regime has the power to "own" you, when your love of something is discovered to be of value to those in power....it's a setup for misuse and abuse. It's a setup for lives to be twisted in directions never imagined.
My intellect was captured by the historical relevance in this story, some of which took place during my lifetime and included life outside gymnastics for Russian citizens. I was not as captured by the emotional qualities in the story or the way it was rendered, resulting in a less than enthralling read. Interesting in some ways, but not gripping. 2.75 rounded up.
I did enjoy the commentary the book sparked during this buddy read, and reliving some YouTube moments of the gymnasts making appearances in the narrative. Thanks C and K!
My intellect was captured by the historical relevance in this story, some of which took place during my lifetime and included life outside gymnastics for Russian citizens. I was not as captured by the emotional qualities in the story or the way it was rendered, resulting in a less than enthralling read. Interesting in some ways, but not gripping. 2.75 rounded up.
I did enjoy the commentary the book sparked during this buddy read, and reliving some YouTube moments of the gymnasts making appearances in the narrative. Thanks C and K!
March 9, 2024
Nije rijetkost da me neke knjige očaraju, te da ih kasnije spominjem u svim raspravama. Jedna od njih je npr. 'Grad lopova' Davida Benioffa, ratni roman u jednoj od najhladnijih zima u povijesti Rusije tijekom Drugoga svjetskog rata, u izgladnjelom gradu pod opsadom, kad dvojica zatvorenika bivaju bačeni zajedno u prilično beznadnu avanturu. A još tijekom čitanja 'Zemlje zime' sam na Facebooku napisao status i rekao da je 'Zemlja zime' vrijedna ostajanja na polici, odmah uz 'Grad lopova'. I ne radi se tu samo o 'ruskoj zimi' kao poveznici, nego o ukupnom osjećaju koji sam imao dok sam gutao stranicu za stranicom. Hladan zrak, depresija, a toplo srce.
Oni koji prate moje osvrte znaju da za neka djela imam običaj napisati da slijede 'oskarovsku listu tema', a i ova je takva. Unijela je Meadows u 'Zemlju zime' brojne intrigantne stvari poput zamišljanja života u, još uvijek zatvorenom gradu, Norilsku na sjeveru Rusije, rudarskom mjestu koje ima polarni dan i polarnu noć bez uobičajene vegetacije, sjećanja jedne od junakinja na iskustvo preživljavanja kazne u Gulagu, djetinjstvo i sportske torture talentirane gimnastičarke Anje od koje se traže vrhunski rezultati, vjeru u uspon sovjetskog društva i raspadu ideala, te još mnogo toga. Tu su dječja prijateljstva i raskidi, sportske i ideološke protekcije sportaša nauštrb uspjeha, bešćutna jurnjava trenera za rezultatima bez obzira na spol i povrede njihovih štićenica, te odrastanje bez nestale majke. Na nekoliko nivoa Meadows je postavila trilerske zagonetke i napetost. Tu su misteriozan nestanak njene majke, tajne male narukvice, polako razotkrivanje zatvorskih sudbina njenih susjeda... dovoljno za želju da pročitate bar još jednu stranicu prije sna. Ipak iznad svega su svjedočenja o vremenima kad tvoj život ne pripada tebi.
Izuzetnom vještinom Rae je pospajala par izvrsnih priča i hladnu arktičku klimu u nevjerojatno topao i potresan roman, a poseban začin dodala poezijom Marine Cvetajeve. U knjigu je unijela povijest Rusije još od Oktobarske revolucije, izuzetne opise i atmosferu subarktičke klime, uspon i pad revolucionarnog zanosa i ideala, pozadinu zlatnih medalja sportašica pa i sudbine ruskih trenera i emigranata u vremenima nakon raspada SSSR-a. Bez obzira kojim se sportom bavili, bili trener, roditelj ili natjecatelj, ovo je knjiga koja otvara i onu mračnu dimenziju uspjeha. Rae je u zahvali posvetila knjigu gimnastičarkama Turiščevoj, Korbut, Kim, Šapošnikovoj, Davidovoj, Filatovoj, Zaharovoj i Eleni Muhini, našlo se tu mjesta i za Nadiju Comaneci, no prepoznat će se i mnogi iz sasvim različitih sportova. Da, možda joj se mogu zamjeriti neke prebrzo ispričane priče, poput onih iz Gulaga ili nerazjašnjeni dijelovi (neću spojlati), no sve sam joj oprostio zbog ukupne atmosfere.
Izuzetno mi se svidio prijevod Ružice Matić jer je ostavila brojne ruske izraze koji romanu daju svojevrsni kredibilitet, no pitanje je hoće li ih mlađi čitatelji znati, a izostao je prijevod u fusnotama. Neke ni ja nisam uspio prepoznati, a nisam od onih koji prekinu čitanje kako bi ih guglali.
Iako je izdata na kraju studenom 2022., a kod nas krajem 2023. čini mi se da je 'Zemlja zime' nezasluženo prošla ispod radara kritike i da njeno vrijeme tek dolazi. Od mene stiže puni aplauz i velika preporuka. Kao što rekoh, na policu će uz 'Grad lopova'.
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Oni koji prate moje osvrte znaju da za neka djela imam običaj napisati da slijede 'oskarovsku listu tema', a i ova je takva. Unijela je Meadows u 'Zemlju zime' brojne intrigantne stvari poput zamišljanja života u, još uvijek zatvorenom gradu, Norilsku na sjeveru Rusije, rudarskom mjestu koje ima polarni dan i polarnu noć bez uobičajene vegetacije, sjećanja jedne od junakinja na iskustvo preživljavanja kazne u Gulagu, djetinjstvo i sportske torture talentirane gimnastičarke Anje od koje se traže vrhunski rezultati, vjeru u uspon sovjetskog društva i raspadu ideala, te još mnogo toga. Tu su dječja prijateljstva i raskidi, sportske i ideološke protekcije sportaša nauštrb uspjeha, bešćutna jurnjava trenera za rezultatima bez obzira na spol i povrede njihovih štićenica, te odrastanje bez nestale majke. Na nekoliko nivoa Meadows je postavila trilerske zagonetke i napetost. Tu su misteriozan nestanak njene majke, tajne male narukvice, polako razotkrivanje zatvorskih sudbina njenih susjeda... dovoljno za želju da pročitate bar još jednu stranicu prije sna. Ipak iznad svega su svjedočenja o vremenima kad tvoj život ne pripada tebi.
Izuzetnom vještinom Rae je pospajala par izvrsnih priča i hladnu arktičku klimu u nevjerojatno topao i potresan roman, a poseban začin dodala poezijom Marine Cvetajeve. U knjigu je unijela povijest Rusije još od Oktobarske revolucije, izuzetne opise i atmosferu subarktičke klime, uspon i pad revolucionarnog zanosa i ideala, pozadinu zlatnih medalja sportašica pa i sudbine ruskih trenera i emigranata u vremenima nakon raspada SSSR-a. Bez obzira kojim se sportom bavili, bili trener, roditelj ili natjecatelj, ovo je knjiga koja otvara i onu mračnu dimenziju uspjeha. Rae je u zahvali posvetila knjigu gimnastičarkama Turiščevoj, Korbut, Kim, Šapošnikovoj, Davidovoj, Filatovoj, Zaharovoj i Eleni Muhini, našlo se tu mjesta i za Nadiju Comaneci, no prepoznat će se i mnogi iz sasvim različitih sportova. Da, možda joj se mogu zamjeriti neke prebrzo ispričane priče, poput onih iz Gulaga ili nerazjašnjeni dijelovi (neću spojlati), no sve sam joj oprostio zbog ukupne atmosfere.
Izuzetno mi se svidio prijevod Ružice Matić jer je ostavila brojne ruske izraze koji romanu daju svojevrsni kredibilitet, no pitanje je hoće li ih mlađi čitatelji znati, a izostao je prijevod u fusnotama. Neke ni ja nisam uspio prepoznati, a nisam od onih koji prekinu čitanje kako bi ih guglali.
Iako je izdata na kraju studenom 2022., a kod nas krajem 2023. čini mi se da je 'Zemlja zime' nezasluženo prošla ispod radara kritike i da njeno vrijeme tek dolazi. Od mene stiže puni aplauz i velika preporuka. Kao što rekoh, na policu će uz 'Grad lopova'.
==
https://dalmatinskiportal.hr/zivot/-t...
==
Link za nabavu: https://znanje.hr/product/zemlja-zime...
==
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March 25, 2023
2.5
I'm afraid I had to struggle to pay attention to the narrator.
Maybe I'd like it better in print form.
I'm afraid I had to struggle to pay attention to the narrator.
Maybe I'd like it better in print form.
March 24, 2023
2.5 🤸♀️🤸♀️
January 11, 2023
I have to say, the more I thought about this book after I finished, the more I really enjoyed it. I love historical fiction, so it was really fascinating to go back to the heyday for Soviet gymnastics during the 1970s and 1980s. I also really enjoyed the mystery element with the disappearance of MC Anya's mother many years ago.
WINTERLAND tells the coming-of-age story of Anya, a young girl chosen to be part of the famed USSR gymnastics program in the Soviet Union, during the 1970s. Anya has always been able to confide in her neighbor, an older woman who survived the Gulag camp, and unbeknownst to Anya, was a dear friend to Anya's mother, and who might have the key to her disappearance.
I really thought the audiobook was done well, and a great choice for narrator, by Daphne Kouma.
*many thanks to Henry Holt and Co and Macmillan Audio for the gifted copy for review
WINTERLAND tells the coming-of-age story of Anya, a young girl chosen to be part of the famed USSR gymnastics program in the Soviet Union, during the 1970s. Anya has always been able to confide in her neighbor, an older woman who survived the Gulag camp, and unbeknownst to Anya, was a dear friend to Anya's mother, and who might have the key to her disappearance.
I really thought the audiobook was done well, and a great choice for narrator, by Daphne Kouma.
*many thanks to Henry Holt and Co and Macmillan Audio for the gifted copy for review
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