Tells the epic story of Catherine the Great's improbable rise to power--as seen through the ever-watchful eyes of an all-but-invisible servant close to the throne. Her name is Barbara--in Russian, Varvara. Nimble-witted and attentive, she's allowed into the employ of the Empress Elizabeth, amid the glitter and cruelty of the world's most eminent court. Under the tutelage of Count Bestuzhev, Chancellor and spymaster, Varvara will be educated in skills...

A sixteen-year-old farmhand is tricked into fighting in the Napoleonic Wars by the farmer for whom he works, who secretly substitutes him for the farmer's own son.

"Offended Sensibilities chronicles a series of sudden deaths that occur among officials of a provincial Russian town. The events in the plot relate to the notorious recent law banning forms of expression that "offend the sensibilities" of religious believers. With this novel, Ganieva moves beyond the setting and themes of her previous writing to address contemporary themes such as nationalism, Orthodox religiosity, sexuality, and political corruption....

"When the statue of a golden bear is found walled up in a dilapidated St. Petersburg bathhouse owned by her family, Rosa Kovalenka knows in her heart that this is no trick of fate. Her uncle thinks of treasure, but Rosa fears the bear is much more. She pleads with her old friend and lover, researcher Daniel St. Clare, to help identify the relic and perhaps take the bear far away from those she loved. St. Clare agrees and sets out for the university...

"In 2006 Julia Lerner is living in Moscow, a recent university graduate in computer science, when she's recruited by Russia's largest intelligence agency. By 2018 she's in Silicon Valley as COO of Tangerine, one of America's most famous technology companies. In between her executive management (make offers to promising startups, crush them and copy their features if they refuse); self promotion (check out her latest op-ed in the WSJ, on Work/Life...

"Walter Eekhaut, a veteran of the Belgian police force who has a problem with authority, has been dispatched to Amsterdam to aid in investigating the activities of a well-connected Russian oligarch, with ties to Putin. Some of the Russian's business is legitimate, but some may well not be. Seconded to Chief Superintendent Alexandra Dewaal of the Dutch security service, he begins to learn about the city's shady underside. Eekhaut is at once pulled...

"Can a land of ice be melted by the fires burning in his heart? 1985. Russia. As the Soviet Union disintegrates and Western capitalism spreads its grip across their land, the Morozov family finds itself consigned to the remote, icy wastes of Siberia. It is here that their only child, Alexey, is born. A sweet and gentle schoolboy, Alexey discovers that reciting poetry learnt by heart calms his fears. That winter gales can be battled with self-invented...

"Captain Dominika Egorova of the Russian Intelligence Service (SVR) has returned from the West to Moscow. She despises the men she serves, the oligarchs, and crooks, and thugs of Putin's Russia. What no one knows is that Dominika is working for the CIA as Washington's most sensitive penetration of SVR and the Kremlin. As she expertly dodges exposure, Dominika deals with a murderously psychotic boss; survives an Iranian assassination attempt; escapes...

"In this short novel, Fyodor Dostoevsky tells the story of Alexey Ivanovitch, a young tutor working in the household of an imperious Russian general. Alexey tries to break through the wall of the established order in Russia, but instead becomes mired in the endless downward spiral of betting and loss. His intense and inescapable addiction is accentuated by his affair with the General's cruel yet seductive niece, Polina. In The Gambler, Dostoevsky...

Based on a true event, in which a young revolutionary was murdered by his comrades, The Possessed provoked a storm of controversy for its harsh depiction of a ruthless band of Russian intellectuals, atheists, socialists, anarchists, and other radicals who attempt to incite the population of a small provincial town to revolt against the government. In contrast to Dostoevsky's savage portrait of these radicals and the violent ideas that have possessed...