From the author of The Kiss, a magical, riveting story of doomed love, set at the fall of Russia"s last Tsar. New Year"s Day, St Petersburg, 1917. Divers pull the body of Rasputin, the Mad Monk, from the icy waters of the Neva River. Within hours, his daughters are taken to the Royal Palace, where the Tsarina makes a shocking request: would Masha, eighteen, take on her father"s role as healer to the Tsarevitch Alyosha? Two months later, revolution has toppled the Tsar, and the entire family is placed under house arrest. Trapped together in harsh conditions, Masha and Alyosha find solace in one another"s company. Two teenagers, with radically different experiences of the Romanov"s ill-fated reign, create a private realm of magic and love, as Masha introduces Alyosha to the wild and beautiful land he will never rule. "A stupendous work of historical imagination" Peter Carey