She started the story, that evening, as she always did. Her children listened, wondering if she would finish it this time. It starts out with the young girl falling in love with a prince and it continues until they secretly meet under the bridge in St. Petersburg Square, amidst the snow and the starry night sky. They watched in fear, a black carriage pulling up to the young girl's building across the square, as the Black Knight and his minions drag her father out of the building and throw him angrily into the back of the carriage and drive off. The prince tells the young woman to go home and be with her family and leaves her under the bridge, shivering from fear and the cold. That's where the story ends...each time she tells it. Her children beg for more but she rebuffs them angrily and walks upstairs to her bedroom, leaving them increasingly curious, disappointed, and resigned.
This is a story that starts out in St. Petersburg, Russia and spans the decades to culminate in a story of death, separation, and loss in the war-torn world that Lenin created when he stormed St. Petersburg, and how love, hope and determination can outlast the tyranny of war.
Winter Garden by Kirsten Hannah
2 comments:
So, that's an excerpt from the book or is it a challenge to read the book? :)
It's my summary of anexcerpt from the book AND most definitely a challenge to read it. It is absolutely one of my favorites and I usually don't care for many current authors. I try to keep to my tried and sure favorites. But someone who I greatly admire and respect suggested this book to me and once I got it....it hasn't left me; neither in heart or possession!
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