The Revolution of Marina M.

Description

St. Petersburg, New Year's Eve, 1916. Marina Makarova is a young woman of privilege who aches to break free of the constraints of her genteel life, a life about to be violently upended by the vast forces of history. Swept up on these tides, Marina will join the marches for workers' rights, fall in love with a radical young poet, and betray everything she holds dear, before being betrayed in turn. As her country goes through almost unimaginable upheaval, Marina's own coming-of-age unfolds, marked by deep passion and devastating loss, and the private heroism of an ordinary woman living through extraordinary times. This is the epic, mesmerizing story of one indomitable woman's journey through some of the most dramatic events of the last century.

Janet Fitch's first novel, White Oleander, a #1 bestseller and Oprah's Book Club selection, has been translated into 24 languages and was made into a feature film. Her most recent novel, Paint It Black, hit bestseller lists across the country and has also been made into a film. She lives in Los Angeles.

The Revolution of Marina M. takes us deep inside the Russian Revolution and lets us witness it through a pair of remarkable eyes. Marina is a female Zhivago - a poet who uses her intelligence, her passion, and her love of language to interpret and survive the political turmoil around her. Janet Fitch is a wonderful writer and this might be her best book.--David Ebershoff, author of The Danish Girl and The 19th Wife A captivating novel starring an unforgettable heroine, The Revolution of Marina M. shows you a side to the Russian Revolution you've never seen before.--Sadie Trombetta, Bustle Incandescent. Fitch has expertly drawn the world of Russia in 1916 in flurries of white, like an exquisite snow globe, and then nudged it to the edge of a precipice, until in one jarring push, it falls. It crashes and each brilliant shard lifts and swirls. Poets, artists, profiteers, soldiers, cult leaders, sadists, idealists, blood, sex, hope all piecing together in a new life, a new country. The brilliant Janet Fitch has written yet another powerful, kaleidoscopic novel.--Cynthia Bond, author of Ruby It's a portrait of a moment in time -- of a woman in time, in fact -- that we don't often see, and you'll find yourself savoring each and every word of this breathtaking novel.--Chelsea Hassler, PopSugar Janet Fitch's The Revolution of Marina M., an epic tale of one young woman's story amid the drama and tragedy of the Russian Revolution, is just the thing to keep you both personally inspired and seasonally appropriate.--Mary Sollosi, Entertainment Weekly Janet Fitch's novel shimmers with vital energy...[she] clearly did an astounding amount of research for the novel, which luxuriates in exotic period details...The Revolution of Marina M. is hard to put down...it is charming and lively and ultimately worth the time.--Trine Tsouderos, Chicago Tribune Marina is by turns adventurous, foolish, romantic, self-destructive and courageous in this extraordinary coming-of-age tale.--Jane Ciabbatari, BBC Culture Marina's unlikely bildungsroman proves so gripping that it's hard to put down...Fitch depicts [the Revolution] with devastating accuracy and imaginative power...sprawling, majestic.--Ani Kokobobo, LA Review of Books Sprawling, immersive, and heavily researched.--Steph Cha, USA Today There's brilliance in this book: concept, structure, style. If the horrors associated with the Russian revolution freeze your blood, remember the fire and brimstone of our own Civil War. Read this novel for the passion of the main character, a girl becoming woman and poet with ten times the vitality and intellect of Scarlett O'Hara.--Sena Jeter Naslund, author of Ahab's Wife and Abundance, a Novel of Marie-Antoinette This epic tale from the bestselling author of White Oleander follows Marina Makarova, a young woman living in St. Petersburg at the start of the Russian Revolution in 1916. Looking to escape from her privileged life, she joins the marches for worker's rights-and finds herself falling in love with the movement and a young radical. In this relatable coming-of-age novel, Marina grapples with a changing world and struggles to find her place in it.--Nora Horvath, Real Simple This is an epic page-turner of a novel.--Mackenzie Dawson, NY Post