Book picks similar to
The Candlesticks and the Cross by Ruth Freeman Solomon


historical-fiction
russia
good-reads
russian-fiction-romance

Russian Treasures


Elvira Baryakina - 2011
    Trade continues to boom in its colorful cities, couples tango in ballrooms, and grand mansions of nobility stand untouched, quiet and poetic. Yet within three months, the Bolshevik revolution will tear the Russian Empire apart.Klim Rogov returns from abroad and senses that a storm is coming—his journalist’s instincts never let him down. His plan is to claim his inheritance and return to Buenos Aires where his successful career, fame, and fans await.Upon setting foot in his deceased father’s house, Klim runs into an uninvited guest. Passionate, strong-willed, and fearless, Nina Odintsova dazzles him. Despite her odds, she has managed to run a successful business and keep her family afloat. Now she is about to lose everything in the flames of the Bolshevik revolution.Klim knows that if he stays in Russia, he will pay a terrible price. But he cannot desert the woman he now loves, and he makes the decision to remain in the Land of the Soviets where he will fight for their lives amidst the bloody clashes between the Red Army and the White Guard.RUSSIAN TREASURES is a story of impossible love, insane courage, and the most difficult choices a person could ever make.Inspired by the most dramatic events in Russian history, Elvira Baryakina’s uplifting novel illuminates the complex reasons for the October Revolution of 1917 and introduces the readers to a fascinating yet eerie world of the nascent communist dictatorship.

The Sunday Girls


Maureen Reynolds - 2007
    Ann would love to stay at school but following the death of her mother she is forced to become a housemaid to support her family. Her employer, Mrs Barrie, couldn't be kinder, but the spiteful housekeeper Miss Hood makes Ann's life a misery. When she meets Maddie, the daughter of a prosperous Dundee solicitor, the only thing they have in common is that they were both born on a Sunday, but they become firm friends, finding fun and laughter in good times and bad.

Music of a Life


Andreï Makine - 2001
    But just before his début, his parents -- his father a famous playwright, and his mother a renowned opera singer -- are exposed for their political indiscretions and held under arrest. With World War II on the brink, and fearing that his own entrapment is not far behind, Alexeï flees to the countryside, assumes the identity of a Soviet soldier, and falls dangerously in love with a general officer's daughter. What follows is a two-decades-long journey through war and peace, love and betrayal, art and artifice -- a rare ensemble in the making of the music of a life.

Almost to Eden


June Hall McCash - 2010
    Seeking a new Eden in America, she discovers that freedom and justice, even in the new world, do not always triumph over wealth and power. In the process of her journey, Maggie finds and loses the things she loves most, but grace and courage lead her toward a fulfillment she never thought to find.

The Eighth Life


Nino Haratischwili - 2014
    And when she was lying in her bed again, recalling the taste with all her senses, she was sure that this secret recipe could heal wounds, avert catastrophes, and bring people happiness. But she was wrong.'At the start of the twentieth century, on the edge of the Russian Empire, a family prospers. It owes its success to a delicious chocolate recipe, passed down the generations with great solemnity and caution. A caution which is justified: this is a recipe for ecstasy that carries a very bitter aftertaste ...Stasia learns it from her Georgian father and takes it north, following her new husband, Simon, to his posting at the centre of the Russian Revolution in St Petersburg. Stasia's is only the first in a symphony of grand but all too often doomed romances that swirl from sweet to sour in this epic tale of the red century.Tumbling down the years, and across vast expanses of longing and loss, generation after generation of this compelling family hears echoes and sees reflections. Great characters and greater relationships come and go and come again; the world shakes, and shakes some more, and the reader rejoices to have found at last one of those glorious old books in which you can live and learn, be lost and found, and make indelible new friends.

The Long Patrol


Chris Glatte - 2016
    It will be the Division’s first combat test, as well as its bloodiest.The fighting has come to a standstill with neither side giving ground. The 164th is desperate to break the stalemate and the mounting casualties.Their possible solution comes in the form of a British Coast Watcher. Thomas Welch offers to take a small unit into the jungle to meet up with a force of natives to instigate a guerrilla war against the Japanese rear.A unit from Able Company is selected for the job. Each man’s been battle-tested, defending Henderson field from hordes of attacking Japanese. The mission goes badly from the outset and the unit is cut off and desperate to continue their mission.As the battle for Guadalcanal rages on, their mission changes. As more men fall, the likelihood of completing it is slipping away. Alone, hurt and betrayed, they find themselves as the only soldiers able to deliver victory from the jaws of defeat.

Song of the Wind


Madge Swindells - 1985
     When her mother is shot at the close of World War II, Marika Magos is orphaned into a new life in the diamond canyons of South Africa. As a worn-torn Europe is on the mend, Marika climbs to the glittering heights of the London fashion industry. From Paris to New York, her name is known and her admirers many. Not even Tony Palma, the international tycoon who thought he possessed her entirely knows of the secret passion she harbours for Swiss immigrant Gunter Grieff. Yet the sweet promise of their affair turns to ashes when Marika learns that his name and papers are false, changed in the final days of the war to protect his German identity. Song of the Wind tells a powerful tale of romance, adventure and intrigue. Praise for Song of the Wind ‘Irresistible . . . keeps your emotions trembling over hundreds of pages’ - MAIL ON SUNDAY Praise for Madge Swindells Praise for Madge Swindells 'Superlative' - Publishers Weekly 'I was gripped from start to finish’ - Kate Alexander, author ‘Terrific. A book that’s big in every sense. . . rich in detail and written with passion it lives on in the memory. I loved it’ - Sarah Harrison, author Madge Swindells was born and educated in England. As a teenager, she emigrated to South Africa where she studied archaeology at Cape Town University. Later, in England, she was a Fleet Street journalist and the manager of her own publishing company. Her earlier novels, Summer Harvest, Shadows on the Snow, The Corsican Woman, Edelweiss, The Sentinel and Harvesting the Past were international bestsellers and have been translated into eight languages. She lives in South Africa.

The Petty Demon


Fyodor Sologub - 1905
    It is also the most decadent of the great Russian classics, replete with naked boys, sinuous girls, and a strange mixture of beauty and perversity. The main hero, Peredonov, is as comical as he is disgusting, he is at once a victim, a monster, a silly hypocrite, and a sadistic dullard. The plot moves from Peredonov’s petty quest for a promotion to arson and murder via one of the most incredible and uproarious scandal scenes in world literature, the masquerade ball, which the boy Sasha attends as a beautiful geisha. Even in its censored form, it is one of the most provocative and sexually open of Russian books. Sologub removed many passages which would have been unacceptable at the time of publication. In this edition these censored sections are appended, and all are keyed so that the reader can place them in the novel as it was written.

The Foundation Pit


Andrei Platonov - 1930
    The Foundation Pit portrays a group of workmen and local bureaucrats engaged in digging the foundation pit for what is to become a grand 'general' building where all the town's inhabitants will live happily and 'in silence.'

The Golovlyov Family


Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin - 1880
    There Anna Petrovna rules with an iron hand over her servants and family-until she loses power to the relentless scheming of her hypocritical son Porphyry. One of the great classic novels of Russian literature, The Golovlyov Family is a vivid picture of a condemned and isolated outpost of civilization that, for contemporary readers, will recall the otherwordly reality of Macondo in Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude.

The Lavender Garden


Lucinda Riley - 2012
    With the property comes a mountain of debt—and almost as many questions . . .Paris, 1944: A bright, young British office clerk, Constance Carruthers, is sent undercover to Paris to be part of Churchill’s Special Operations Executive during the climax of the Nazi occupation. Separated from her contacts in the Resistance, she soon stumbles into the heart of a prominent family who regularly entertain elite members of the German military even as they plot to liberate France. But in a city rife with collaborators and rebels, Constance’s most difficult decision may be determining whom to trust with her heart.As Emilie discovers what really happened to her family during the war and finds a connection to Constance much closer than she suspects, the château itself may provide the clues that unlock the mysteries of her past, present, and future. Here is a dazzling novel of intrigue and passion from one of the world’s most beloved storytellers.Note to readers: In the UK, this book is published under the title The Light Behind the Window.

Like Dust, I Rise


Ginny Rorby - 2021
    When he quits his job in the Chicago stockyards to join other homesteaders settling the Great Plains, Nona finds herself torn between supporting her father's vision for their future and her mother's struggle to adjust to life on a desolate prairie.Initially, things look up for the family as they settle into life in Dalhart, Texas. The wheat boom is in full swing, and it appears her father's dream of providing his family with a home of their own is coming true. Too soon the effects of the depression impact her family. Then the rains stop. Before long, Dalhart is the epicenter of the Dust Bowl.Like Dust, I Rise transforms poverty into pride and reflects the heroism of endurance.

And Quiet Flows the Don, Vol 1 of 5


Mikhail Sholokhov - 2001
    

The Jewel of St. Petersburg


Kate Furnivall - 2010
    Valentina Ivanova is the darling of St. Petersburg's elite aristocracy-until her romance with a Danish engineer creates a terrible scandal and her parents push her into a loveless engagement with a Russian count. Meanwhile, Russia itself is bound for rebellion. With the Tsar and the Duma at each other's throats, and the Bolsheviks drawing their battle lines, the elegance and opulence of Tsarist rule are in their last days. And Valentina will be forced to make a choice that will change not only her own life, but the lives of those around her forever...

हिटलर र यहुदी [Hitler ra Yahudee]


Bishweshwar Prasad Koirala - 1958
    In this book, the author has described about the autocratic rule in Nepal and the struggle the leaders of different political parties had to do against those dictators. In this book, the author has explained about the painful experience in prison during those struggling periods. Similarly, through this book, the author has even mentioned about the Nepali society of that time. Similarly, here in some places it is also mentioned about the world war and the history of Hitler. This book also describes about the different aspects of life. Here, it is also shown about the relationship and the love between a husband and a wife. Similarly, somewhere it also talks about the pain and sorrow arisen at the time of departure from our beloved ones and own nation. Thus, this book has presented us different aspects of life. This book must be read at least for once.