…Kalotay, who previously published Calamity and Other Stories, is a spectacular writer: precise, alert, full of movement and air.” -Nancy Rommelmann, The Oregonian It is to Kalotay’s credit that she does not pay mere lip service to Grigori’s grief over his dead wife, to Drew’s failed marriage she explicates, she details, she keeps the dead and the living on each page. reading Daphne Kalotay’s debut novel.… Kalotay unfurls the plot exquisitely, inching together her three main characters, each trapped, as are the insects in Nina’s amber, in their respective stases. It could well be the debut novel of the year.” -Frank Wilson, Philadelphia Inquirer “ Russian Winter… is eerily engaging and affecting. “This novel, about an oppressive Soviet Russia, a mysterious amber pendant, and the lives of ballerinas, composers, and poets, is fantastic.” -Lindy Moore, The Rumpus The interlocking plots–the present alternates with Revskaya’s youth–build to harrowing betrayals, showing how Soviet Russia was ‘rearranged to discourage love for anything other than one’s country.” - The New Yorker An auspicious first novel, elegantly written and without a false note.” - Kirkus, (starred review) … complex story that, in the end, boils down to the simplest of elements: love, fear, disappointment and loss.
“A sweeping transgenerational novel… Kalotay develops a neat narrative of deception and betrayal that takes in great strands of literary and political history. The secrets at the heart of the novel are treated as delicately, and guarded as carefully, as the precious stones at the story’s centre, and only revealed at the novel’s satisfying end.” - Times Literary Supplement (U.K.)
She never strikes a false note, and the characters are believable within their own world. The book benefits greatly from the light, natural way in which Kalotay handles specialist knowledge-of ballet, gemology and academia.
Kalotay is equally effective when dealing in broad brush strokes-life in Soviet Russia-and the minutiae of modern life, such as the party Grigori attends at the home of a pretentious academic couple…. It is a satisfying mystery with a finely drawn plot. “Kalotay’s novel draws the reader in and maintains its momentum throughout. “An impressive debut: intelligent, moving, and flitting seamlessly between the artistic salons of Soviet Russia and the Boston of today.” -Laura Barnett, The Guardian (U.K.) Toward the end, with many unanswered questions swirling, the author lets the truth ebb and flow until a final riptide of revelations leaves the reader profoundly moved.” -Eugenia Zukerman, Washington Post … And while there is fascinating information and insight about ballet, jewels, music, art and politics, the emotional center of the book holds everything together. “A magnificent tale of love, loss, betrayal and redemption.
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