While this is also a love story, it is overwhelmingly a war novel describing the horrors of WW II from the perspective of a Russian soldier who finds that his country has turned against him. He is forced to the front lines of a battle with German troops who outnumber he and his men and imprisoned several times. His experiences are wretched and grueling, and yet he survives. Through it all, it his memories of the young women he fell in love with and married that sustain him.

I read this without first reading The Bronze Horseman , and it was fine as a standalone novel. I’m not sure if I’ll read the first in the series later or not. I thought that the scenes of Tatiana and Alexander’s lovemaking were just a little bit over the top. TMI for me. Also, the conclusion comes very quickly after all that has happened prior. I’d bet that Simons picks up from there in the last book in the series, The Summer Garden.

Alexander Anthony Barrington was born in America to American parents, but his father was overcome by a belief that a communist society was ideal. “His father thought the Soviet Union was the place where they would finally belong, where Alexander would not be laughed at, where they would be welcomed and admired instead of shunned and ridiculed”. So, before Alexander reached his teen years his parents and he emigrated to Russia. When he was sixteen, he was conscripted into the Red Army, and eventually rose through the ranks to become a major. He met Tatiana Metanova, they fell madly in love with each other, married, and she became pregnant. Alexander is accused of treason and is discovered by the Red Army around this time. To save Tatiana, Alexander convinced her to escape the country. She fled to New York, where she and Alexander’s son was born. As a nurse at Ellis Island, she is constantly searching the faces of strangers, hoping to see her husband’s countenance among the masses. While they are thousands of miles apart, Alexander and Tatiana are constantly in each other’s thoughts.