The Bronze Horseman
The golden skies, the translucent twilight, the white nights, all hold the promise of youth, of love, of eternal renewal. The war has not yet touched this city of fallen grandeur, or the lives of two sisters, Tatiana and Dasha Metanova, who share a single room in a cramped apartment with their brother and parents. Their world is turned upside down when Hitler's armies attack Russia and begin their unstoppable blitz to Leningrad.\ Yet there is light in the darkness. Tatiana meets Alexander, a...
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Special PerfectBound e-book exclusive feature! Paullina Simons's tribute to her still-living grandparents, survivors of Russia's twentieth century from World War I and the Russian Revolution through the siege of Leningrad and the regimes of Lenin and Stalin.Library JournalIn 1941 Leningrad, two sisters share everything including a passion for Red Army officer Alexander. Simons, the author of Tully and other titles, was born and raised in St. Petersburg. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Chapter One\ The Field of Mars\ Light came through the window, trickling morning all over the room. Tatiana Metanova slept the sleep of the innocent, the sleep of restless joy, of warm, white Leningrad nights, of jasmine June. But most of all, intoxicated with life, she slept the exuberant sleep of undaunted youth.\ She did not sleep for much longer.\ When the sun's rays moved across the room to rest at the foot of Tatiana's bed, she pulled the sheet over her head, trying to keep the daylight out. The bedroom door opened, and she heard the floor creak once. It was her sister, Dasha.\ Daria, Dasha, Dashenka, Dashka.\ She represented everything that was dear to Tatiana.\ Right now, however, Tatiana wanted to smother her. Dasha was trying to wake her up and, unfortunately, succeeding. Dasha's strong hands were vigorously shaking Tatiana, while her usually harmonious voice was dissonantly hissing, "Psst! Tania! Wake up. Wake up!"\ Tatiana. groaned. Dasha pulled back the sheet.\ Never was their seven-year age difference more apparent than now, when Tatiana wanted to sleep and Dasha was ...\ "Stop it," Tatiana muttered, fishing helplessly behind her for the sheet and pulling it back over her. "Can't you see I'm sleeping? What are you? My mother?"\ The door to the room opened. Two creaks on the floor. It was her mother. "Tania? You awake? Get up right now."\ Tatiana could never say that her mother's voice was harmonious. There was nothing soft about Irina Metanova. She was small, boisterous, and full of indignant, overflowing energy. She wore a kerchief to keep her hair back from her face, forshe had probably already been down on her knees washing the communal bathroom in her blue summer frock. She looked bedraggled and done with her Sunday.\ "What, Mama?" Tatiana said, not lifting her head from the pillow. Dasha's hair touched Tatiana's back. Her hand was on Tatiana's leg, and Dasha bent over as if to kiss her. Tatiana felt a momentary tenderness, but before Dasha could say anything, Mama's grating voice intruded. "Get up quick. There's going to be an important announcement on the radio in a few minutes."\ Tatiana whispered to Dasha, "Where were you last night? You didn't come in till well past dawn."\ "Can I help it," Dasha whispered with pleasure, "that last night dawn was at midnight? I came in at the perfectly respectable hour of midnight." She was grinning. "You were all asleep."\ "Dawn was at three, and you weren't home."\ Dasha paused. "I'll tell Papa I got caught on the other side of the river when the bridges went up at three."\ "Yes, you do that. Explain to him what you were doing on the other side of the river at three in the morning." Tatiana turned over. Dasha looked particularly striking this morning. She had unruly dark brown hair and an animated, round, dark-eyed face that had a reaction for everything. Right now that reaction was cheerful exasperation. Tatiana was exasperated herself -- less cheerfully. She wanted to continue sleeping.\ She caught a glimpse of her mother's tense expression. "What announcement?"\ Her mother was taking the bedclothes off the sofa.\ "Mama! What announcement?" Tatiana. repeated.\ "There is going to be a government announcement in a few minutes. That's all I know," Mama said doggedly, shaking her head, as if to say, what's not to understand?\ Tatiana. was reluctantly awake. Announcement. It was a rare event when music would be interrupted for a word from the government. "Maybe we invaded Finland again." She rubbed her eyes.\ "Quiet," Mama said.\ "Or maybe they invaded us. They've been wanting their borders back ever since losing them last year."\ "We didn't invade them," said Dasha. "Last year we went to get ourborders back. The ones we lost in the Great War. And you should stop listening to adult conversations."\ "We didn't lose our borders," Tatiana said. "Comrade Lenin gave them away freely and willingly. That doesn't count."\ "Tania, we are not at war with Finland. Get out of bed."\ Tatiana did not get out of bed. "Latvia, then? Lithuania? Byelorussia? Didn't we just help ourselves to them, too, after the Hitler-Stalin pact?"\ "Tatiana Georgievna! Stop it!" Her mother always called her by her first and patronymic names whenever she wanted to show Tatiana she was not in the mood to be fooled with.\ Tatiana. pretended to be serious. "What else is left? We already have half of Poland."\ "I said stop!" Mama exclaimed. "Enough of your games. Get out of bed. Daria Georgievna, get that sister of yours out of bed."\ Dasha did not move.\ Growling, Mama left the room.\ Turning quickly to Tatiana, Dasha whispered conspiratorially, "I've got something to tell you!"\ "Something good?" Tatiana was instantly curious. Dasha usually revealed little about her grown-up life. Tatiana sat up.\ "Something great!" said Dasha. "I'm in love!"\ Tatiana rolled her eyes and fell back on the bed.\ "Stop it!" Dasha said, jumping on top of her. "This is serious, Tania."\ "Yes, all right. Did you just meet him yesterday when the bridges were up?" She smiled.\ "Yesterday was the third time."\ Tatiana shook her head, gazing at Dasha, whose joy was infectious. "Can you get off me?"\ "No, I can't get off you," Dasha said, tickling her. "Not until you say, 'I'm happy, Dasha.'"\ "Why would I say that?" exclaimed Tatiana, laughing. "I'm not happy. Stop it! Why should I be happy? I'm not in love. Cut it out!"\ Mama came back into the room, carrying six cups on a round tray and a silver samovar -- an urn with a spigot used for boiling water for tea. "You two will stop at once! Did you hear me?"\ "Yes, Mama," said Dasha, giving Tatiana one last hard tickle.\ "Ouch!" said Tatiana as loudly as possible... The Bronze Horseman. Copyright © by Paullina Simons. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.
\ From Barnes & NobleIn a sweeping narrative reminiscent of the epic classic Dr. Zhivago comes a love story that takes place in war-torn Russia during World War II. Named for a statue in Red Square, The Bronze Horseman is a perfect blend of romance, suspense, and intrigue, guaranteed to transport readers to another place and time. The Metanov family, including sisters Tatiana and Dasha, are already eking out a meager existence in recession-stricken Leningrad, when their lives are further disrupted by the forces of war. To Tatiana the fighting brings great fear, but also the man of her dreams -- an officer in the Red Army named Alexander. But these two lovers are as star-crossed as Russia herself, their destinies forged by secrecy, tragedy, and a set of circumstances that makes their shared love a force they can neither deny nor embrace.\ \ \ \ \ Library JournalIn 1941 Leningrad, two sisters share everything including a passion for Red Army officer Alexander. Simons, the author of Tully and other titles, was born and raised in St. Petersburg. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.\ \ \ School Library JournalAdult/High School-A heart-stopping love story by the author of Tully (St. Martin's, 1995). Teens will also be gripped by descriptions of battles of World War II Europe on the eastern front, when Hitler abrogated the nonaggression pact with Stalin and invaded Russia. The events are told in explicit detail, from battle scenes to the horror of life in Leningrad under siege to passionate lovemaking. Tatiana meets Alexander when she is 16; he is an army officer but soon reveals that he is American by birth, the son of communists who moved to Russia to be part of a new society. They were killed by the secret police when they became disillusioned. Alexander hides his secret from all but one man, Dimitri, who constantly threatens him. Tatiana, living in a cramped apartment with her family, watches her parents, grandmother, and cousin die of starvation. With Alexander's help she escapes from Leningrad and makes her way to the country, staying with distant cousins who nurse her back to health. Tatiana and Alexander are reunited there, and for a brief time live an idyllic life. They marry and he returns to the war. Finally, desperate to escape Russia, the couple decides to leave by way of Finland, but Dimitri again foils their plans. Only Tatiana arrives in America, to give birth to their son on Ellis Island.-Molly Connally, Kings Park Library, Fairfax County, VA Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.\ \
