Product Description
One woman's odyssey through a century of turmoil ... St Petersburg: one famous night of violence in the October Revolution ends the lavish life of the Romanov court forever - shattering the dreams of young Countess Zoya Ossupov. Paris: under the shadow of the Great War, émigrés struggle for survival as taxi drivers, seamstresses and ballet dancers. Zoya flees there in poverty ... and leaves in glory. America: a glittering world of flappers, fast cars and furs in the Roaring Twenties; a world of comfort and café society that would come crashing down without warning. Zoya - a true heroine of our time - emerges triumphant from this panoramic web of history into the 80s to face challenges and triumphs.
Reviews:
jacquie (United Kingdom) (2009/01/20): From amazon.co.uk: Beginning first in Russia during the revolution in the early 1900s, a lot of history can be learnt from this book.
The story moves onto Paris to where Zoya escapes to with her beloved Grandmother, after her father and mother were killed in the revolution and her brother in the war. In order to survive the days in Paris, where many people are starving as they feel the affects of the war and Russian Dukes and Princes are found to be driving taxi's, Zoya must go against her Grandmother's wishes and join the Balet.
Danielle Steel ingeniously leads the reader through Zoya's lifetime from Russia to Paris to New york and finally, back to Russia. Through love and loss she encaptures Zoya's passion and beauty until one really feels as though they know her personally.
