SOFKA ZINOVIEFF

A bold, thought-provoking novel that will compel and disquiet in equal measure, about the moral lines we tread, the stories we tell ourselves and the secrets we bury; ''''the best novel of 2018, by far'''' (Cressida Connolly, Spectator)A BOOK OF THE YEAR 2018 - CHOSEN BY THE OBSERVER, NEW STATESMAN ANDSPECTATOR1970s London. Ralph, an up-and-coming composer, has gone to visit Edmund Greenslay in his riverside home. At the heart of the house''''s wild bliss he finds Edmund''''s nine-year-old daughter Daphne, flitting, sprite-like, through the house''''s colourful rooms and unruly garden. From the moment their lives collide Ralph is consumed by an obsession to make Daphne his.Decades later, Daphne watches her own daughter come of age and is confronted with the truth of her own childhood - and a devastating act of violence that has lain hidden for decades.

In 1907 Princess Sophy (''Sofka'') Dolgorouky was born in St Petersburg. Members of the Imperial family had attended her parents'' wedding earlier that same year, and the child was born into a privileged world of nurses, private tutors and elegant tea parties. The Russian Revolution caused the princess to flee across Europe to England, but it was the Second World War that left the deepest marks on her adult life. During those years, she left her first husband and lost her second. Later, she was interned in a Nazi prison camp, where she discovered Communism and showed great bravery in defending the rights of the Jewish prisoners. It was her Communism which took her back to the Soviet Union as an improbable tour guide for British workers. And Communism, albeit indirectly, brought her the last love of her life, Jack, a working-class Londoner who had never been abroad. Sofka''s colourful life also included a close friendship with Laurence Olivier, innumerable lovers, some serious, some quickly discarded, and an abiding love of reading and especially poetry. This affectionate portrait of the ''red princess'' by her granddaughter and namesake uses letters, diaries and interviews to recreate a vanished world and also explore the author''s own Russian roots.

Personal biografía de la Princesa Zinovieff, escrita por la nieta de la protagonista. Nacida en la corte zarista de San Petersburgo, nada presagiaba que la Princesa Zinovieff acabaría militando en el Partido Comunista britanico. Su agitada trayectoria vital es una radiografia de las turbulencias que agitaron el siglo XX: vivio la Revolucion Rusa, las dos grandes Guerras Mundiales, los campos de concentracion nazi y la lucha por la supervivencia de los prisioneros judios, a quienes ayudo poniendo en peligro su propia vida.Zinovieff dibuja un vivo e intenso retrato Una vida de excentricidades y excesos, de perdidas y exilio, de coraje La Princesa Roja es un pequeño monumento conmemorativo a todas aquellas vidas desplazadas por la corriente de la historia moderna. Un maravilloso relato. THE GUARDIAN

Sofka Zinovieff had fallen in love with Greece as a student, but little suspected that years later she would, return for good with an expatriate Greek husband and two young daughters. This book is a wonderfully fresh, funny, and inquiring account of her first year as an Athenian. The whole family have to come to grips with their new life and identities--the children start school and tackle a new language, and Sofka's husband, Vassilis, comes home after half a lifetime away. Meanwhile, Sofka resolves to get to know her new city and become a Greek citizen, which turns out to be a process of Byzantine complexity. As the months go by, Sofka's discovers how memories of Athens' past haunt its present in its music, poetry, and history. She also learns about the difficult art of catching a taxi, the importance of smoking, the unimportance of time-keeping, and how to get your Christmas piglet cooked at the baker's.

"We gazed transfixed across the small, strangely tropical bay at the bottom of the hill, and the surrounding palm trees and sandy beaches. Beyond the bay was the wide expanse of the Saronic Gulf, with its distant traffic of boats leaving for the islands and returning to the port at Piraeus". This was Sofka Zinovieff''s first sight of the view from Eurydice Street. It was so irresistible that she and her husband immediately knew that they would make their home there. Sofka had fallen in love with Greece as a student, but little suspected that years later she would return for good with an expatriate Greek husband and two young daughters. This book is a fresh, funny and inquiring account of her first year as an Athenian. The whole family have to get to grips with their new life and identities: the children start school and tackle a new language, and Sofka''s husband, Vassilis, comes home after half a lifetime away. Meanwhile, Sofka resolves to get to know her new city and become a Greek citizen, which turns out to be a process of Byzantine complexity. As the months go by, Sofka''s discovers how memories of Athens'' past haunt its present in its music, poetry and history.She also learns about the difficult art of catching a taxi, the importance of smoking, the unimportance of time-keeping, and how to get your Christmas piglet cooked at the baker''s.

''We gazed transfixed across the small, strangely tropical bay at the bottom of the hill, and the surrounding palm trees and sandy beaches. Beyond the bay was the wide expanse of the Saronic Gulf, with its distant traffic of boats leaving for the islands and returning to the port at Piraeus.'' This was Sofka Zinovieff''s first sight of the view from Eurydice Street. It was so irresistible that she and her husband immediately knew that they would make their home there. Sofka had fallen in love with Greece as a student, but little suspected that years later she would return for good with an expatriate Greek husband and two young daughters. This book is a wonderfully fresh, funny, and inquiring account of her first year as an Athenian. The whole family have to get to grips with their new life and identities: the children start school and tackle a new language, and Sofka''s husband, Vassilis, comes home after half a lifetime away. Meanwhile, Sofka resolves to get to know her new city and become a Greek citizen, which turns out to be a process of Byzantine complexity. As the months go by, Sofka''s discovers how memories of Athens'' past haunt its present in its music, poetry, and history. She also learns about the difficult art of catching a taxi, the importance of smoking, the unimportance of time-keeping, and how to get your Christmas piglet cooked at the baker''s.