I was suitably awed by the grand terrace that led up to the palace itself; I couldn’t help but feel flattered to have earned an audience with the Emperor at last. The white-paneled hallway, traced over in gold leaf and crowned with a majestic dreamscape painted across the high ceiling, looked inv...
The twinkling smash of finger bones as fist met face—the meaty bite of the jaw, with the added arpeggio of teeth knocking loose. Wet, sucking slaps as ribs popped and punctured the lungs they encased. Vera forced herself to lean forward for a better view of the brawling ring. There it was, the dr...
She is lying in bed, in our house in the wealthy Party neighborhood of Rublovka, a quilt tucked tight around her. Zhenya lies beside her, humming to himself, while I button up my lightweight autumn coat. “I’m sorry, Andrei,” she says, holding out a thermometer. “You’ll have to take Yulia to the p...
It sounds like the start of a tasteless joke. Two sociopaths, a ladykiller, and a paranoiac walk into a KGB van. No one walks out. Sergei’s too close to me. He’s finally caught on that I’m giving him the silent treatment, but I don’t like his shoulder so close to mine, skittering with anxious noi...
What’s our safest path?” Andrei asks me, speaking from the corner of his mouth in Russian. The corridor is emptying quickly now, as the Nazi workers dive into offices and vaults to hunt for something sturdy to cower under. But Rostov’s map of the compound didn’t extend to this hall; we’ve no idea...