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The Tolstoy Estate

Steven Conte

4.03 · Rating details · 236 ratings · 44 reviews

Epic in scope, ambitious and astonishingly good, The Tolstoy Estate proclaims Steven Conte as one of Australia's finest writers.

From the winner of the inaugural Prime Minister's Literary Award, Steven Conte, comes a powerful, densely rich and deeply affecting novel of love, war and literature

'Grave, moving, engaging ... full of the flash and fire of dramatic incident, but Epic in scope, ambitious and astonishingly good, The Tolstoy Estate proclaims Steven Conte as one of Australia's finest writers.

From the winner of the inaugural Prime Minister's Literary Award, Steven Conte, comes a powerful, densely rich and deeply affecting novel of love, war and literature

'Grave, moving, engaging ... full of the flash and fire of dramatic incident, but also full of real feeling, humour and poignancy, and equipped with plenty of panache ... It deserves the widest possible readership.' The Saturday Paper

In the first year of the doomed German invasion of Russia in WWII, a German military doctor, Paul Bauer, is assigned to establish a field hospital at Yasnaya Polyana - the former grand estate of Count Leo Tolstoy, the author of the classic War and Peace. There he encounters a hostile aristocratic Russian woman, Katerina Trubetzkaya, a writer who has been left in charge of the estate. But even as a tentative friendship develops between them, Bauer's hostile and arrogant commanding officer, Julius Metz, becomes erratic and unhinged as the war turns against the Germans. Over the course of six weeks, in the terrible winter of 1941, everything starts to unravel...

From the critically acclaimed and award-winning author, Steven Conte, The Tolstoy Estate is ambitious, accomplished and astonishingly good: an engrossing, intense and compelling exploration of the horror and brutality of conflict, and the moral, emotional, physical and intellectual limits that people reach in war time. It is also a poignant, bittersweet love story - and, most movingly, a novel that explores the notion that literature can still be a potent force for good in our world.

'Breathtaking ... an intelligent. cinematic blockbuster. celebrating the power of literature to dissolve barriers and forge connections.' The West Australian

'Reading a book that is such a complete world, evoked in such fine detail, is almost wickedly satisfying ... Elegant, intelligent, utterly engrossing and immersive ... He reminds us that travel is always possible in the imagination even when reality goes dark and that literature always leads us towards the light.' Caroline Baum

'Steven Conte has written a sweeping historical saga spanning the second world WAR and the frigid decades of PEACE that followed; an essential novel about essential things - love's triumphs and failures, the redoubtable human spirit, and the power of literary art itself. Tolstoy, of course, is at the novel's heart, and in its very soul.' Luke Slattery, author, journalist, Books Editor of Australian Financial Review

'A riveting story of war, love and literature - Conte's prose does not miss a beat.' Jane Gleeson-White, award-winning author of Classics and Double Entry ...more

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ebook, 416 pages

Published September 1st 2020 by 4th Estate

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Sep 03, 2020 Carolyn rated it it was amazing

Shelves: australian-author, favourite-books, netgalley-2020, netgalley, love, historical, 2020, ww2, literary

The atmospheric cover of this book drew me into reading it and it is certainly very evocative of the time and place at the centre of this wonderful novel.

In November 1941, a German medial unit was sent to find buildings suitable for setting up a field hospital close to the front near Tula, which the German army was attempting to take in push towards Moscow. They choose Yasnaya Polyana, the country estate of Leo Tolstoy, which had been converted to a museum in honor of Tolstoy, much to the disgus The atmospheric cover of this book drew me into reading it and it is certainly very evocative of the time and place at the centre of this wonderful novel.

In November 1941, a German medial unit was sent to find buildings suitable for setting up a field hospital close to the front near Tula, which the German army was attempting to take in push towards Moscow. They choose Yasnaya Polyana, the country estate of Leo Tolstoy, which had been converted to a museum in honor of Tolstoy, much to the disgust of Katerina Trubetzkaya, the fierce and somewhat feisty custodian in charge of the museum. She made no qualms about her hatred of the Germans and refused to leave the museum in their hands, negotiating for her staff to continue caring for it. A writer herself, she gradually warms to one of the surgeons, Paul Bauer, who taught himself Russian while reading 'War and Peace' as a teenager, and is enthralled to be in Tolstoy's home. She finds him a copy in German to re-read and they start to enjoy conversations about life and literature. Both widowed and in their forties, they discover they have more in common than a love of literature.

For six weeks, during the onset of a brutally cold winter that would to see the start of the tide turning against Germany, the surgeons dealt with horrifying casualties, operating for long hours to save as many wounded men as they could. Paul is horrified to learn that his commanding officer and senior surgeon, Julius Metz is taking amphetamines to cope with the long periods without sleep, especially as he becomes increasingly erratic and unpredictable. Even under these conditions, the men show their humanity, forming friendships, enjoying banter and coming up with schemes to occupy their free time.

This is a very immersive tale of a group of men faced daily with horrendous wounds, doing their best to save lives under appalling conditions and numbing exhaustion. Conte's prose is both strong and tender as he observes the interactions and conversations between the characters and the development of an enduring love story. About half way through the book, letters written after the war appear, interspersed with the chapters, and offer a glimpse of what happened to the main characters after the events of those six weeks spent at Tolstoy's home. Together it all made for a wonderful and compelling read that will stay in my mind for some time.

With many thanks to Harper Collins Australia and Netgalley for a copy of this book

Yasnaya Polyana (below) is still maintained as a museum today:

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Sep 05, 2020 Laura Tenfingers rated it really liked it

Shelves: europe, historical-fiction, russia, netgalley, 1800-modern-age

This was a really absorbing read about a German army surgeon during the German invasion of Russia during WWII. His battalion stumbles upon and commandeers Leo Tolstoy's estate which has become a museum and the story references War and Peace all along the way. Having not read War and Peace didn't seem to detract from this book, but I imagine there would be more depth to it had I read that previously.

There is a lot about what daily life at the front was like in a medical unit and it was fascinatin ...more

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Aug 22, 2020 Cass Moriarty rated it it was amazing

My advanced copy of The Tolstoy Estate (Fourth Estate Harper Collins 2020) arrived with this emblazoned on the cover: ‘A Novel for People Who Still Believe in the Saving Grace of Literature in Dark Times’. We are certainly in dark times now in this Covid world, and the novel is set in the dark times of World War Two, but as promised, this story is like a blessing, a saving grace, a tale of love and optimism and hope amidst the absolute terror and trauma of war.
This is the second novel for autho My advanced copy of The Tolstoy Estate (Fourth Estate Harper Collins 2020) arrived with this emblazoned on the cover: ‘A Novel for People Who Still Believe in the Saving Grace of Literature in Dark Times’. We are certainly in dark times now in this Covid world, and the novel is set in the dark times of World War Two, but as promised, this story is like a blessing, a saving grace, a tale of love and optimism and hope amidst the absolute terror and trauma of war.
This is the second novel for author Steven Conte, who won the inaugural Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Fiction in 2008 for his debut The Zookeeper’s War. I can only assume that this second book has been quietly cooking away for the last 12 years and now here it is, eagerly anticipated, extremely well done, delicious and worth the wait.
The Tolstoy Estate is both a well-crafted and beautifully written literary tale but also a dynamic and powerful story with unforgettable characters. The novel explores themes of sacrifice, love, desire, betrayal, duty and the power of great literature to inspire thought, to change minds and to connect people.
Rarely do you come across a book that excels in so many aspects. This is a tender and poignant love story. It is a poetic and evocatively descriptive tale. It is plotted like a tense page-turner, with the raw facts of war – specifically of the medical treatment of war injuries – rendered comprehensible and compelling. And it is driven by its characters, people who we care about from the first pages; personalities that burst onto the page and refuse to stay silent. So much of this story is told in dialogue and this enhances the engagement between character and reader – the spoken words are authentic, sharp, funny, carefully observed, colloquial and interesting. And yet scaffolding all of these relatable aspects is the highly literary work of Leo Tolstoy, his book War and Peace a touchstone for the characters, for the setting and for the narrative.
Set during the German invasion of Russia in WWII, the story features Paul Bauer, a German military doctor, who is assigned to establish a field hospital at Yasnaya Polyana, the former grand estate of the famous writer Count Leo Tolstoy. He encounters the woman left in charge of the estate, fiery Russian Katerina Trusbetzkaya, and despite her initial hostility, a tentative friendship develops between them. But the war is not going according to Germany’s master plan, and over six weeks in the bitterly harsh winter of 1941, Bauer’s arrogant commanding officer Julius Metz becomes more unstable and unhinged, Bauer’s patients come thick and fast from the frontline, and his friends and colleagues suffer the traumas of war in many different ways.
The writing is astonishingly good. It doesn’t shy away from the brutality of war, from the visceral, messy, bloody, heartbreaking horror, and the sections that describe Bauer’s long, unremitting working hours in his relentless attempts to treat wounded soldiers with only basic equipment and supplies, and in freezing temperatures, are both frightening and compelling. But this is balanced by the relationship dynamics between the men, and by the developing frisson of desire between Paul and Katerina, and the absolutely engaging dialogue which exactly captures the characters’ torn loyalties, their unspoken reservations, their bravado and their quietly held fears. These are men and women in extreme circumstances, expected to achieve extraordinary feats while suffering terrible personal trauma. Conte manages to emphasise both the very best and the very worst of human behaviour through the smallest acts, the simplest phrases and the most subtle and nuanced interactions. He explores the ‘moral, emotional, physical and intellectual limits that people reach in war time’, and he does this through the interpretation of a story so engrossing and readable that I found it difficult to put down.
As is typical of a great writer, Conte takes us immediately into the action from page one. This means that those first few pages are dizzying and intense as we try to orientate ourselves into THIS place, THIS time, and engage with THESE people. But by the end of Chapter One, which finishes with a shocking act, I was completely hooked.
Structurally the linear narrative is straightforward until a surprising point about halfway through the novel where the author suddenly takes us forward in time, through an exchange of correspondence, to give us a tantalising glimpse of where some of the characters are in the future. It is only a taste, a small teaser, enough to make us wonder, and then we are back in the thick of the action. He uses this device several times throughout the story, jarring us out of the war and catapulting us into the future. Rather than spoil any plot points, this serves only to whet our curiosity for how he plans to get us from A to B, and how indeed the characters are going to end up where they seem to be.
The final chapter – with its characteristically offhand summation of the fate of one of the characters – is devastating and beautiful and so, so moving.
And the entire story begins and ends with Tolstoy: his life, his work, his writing, his relationships, his death, his legacy.
This is an absolutely riveting book. While it will have obvious appeal to readers who love war stories or who are fascinated by the life and work of Tolstoy, the human emotion and tenderness, the poignancy and humour will have as much wide appeal as books such as All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr and The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.
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Jul 07, 2020 Theresa Smith rated it it was amazing

Shelves: netgalley

This was an exceptionally good novel. It’s the story of a German medical unit that has set up their hospital on the grounds of Tolstoy’s Estate in the middle of the Russian winter of 1941. The novel spans six weeks although in a stylistic twist, the author gives us the ending about half way through with the introduction of a series of letters that begin in the 1960s. Surprisingly, this didn’t spoil the tension of all that was still to come. Although, Conte displays such a command of his narrativ This was an exceptionally good novel. It’s the story of a German medical unit that has set up their hospital on the grounds of Tolstoy’s Estate in the middle of the Russian winter of 1941. The novel spans six weeks although in a stylistic twist, the author gives us the ending about half way through with the introduction of a series of letters that begin in the 1960s. Surprisingly, this didn’t spoil the tension of all that was still to come. Although, Conte displays such a command of his narrative, perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised by this.

‘War is filthy, of course. It hurts and it hardens. But the fact is that for surgeons it’s also an opportunity. Every month we’re making medical advances: honing old techniques, inventing new ones, even upending a dogma or two.’
‘You’re a seeker after truth.’
‘Is that irony I detect?’
‘Yes, but go on.’
‘Truth be told, professional satisfaction is the least of it, because as well as seeking truth I’m also revelling in mystery. I delve into people, and you’ve just seen how strange, how wondrous that can be. What I’m trying to express,’ he said, ‘earnestly…’
‘No matter. Go on.’
‘…is that surgery is more of an art than a science. There’s an imprecision to it – a fuzziness, if you will – that’s maddening but also compelling.’

Paul Bauer, our narrator for this story, is a highly skilled and dedicated surgeon, widowed, in his forties, a German Officer who is not a Nazi, who, in all honesty, appears to not even support Hitler. He is a fan of Tolstoy and relishes the opportunity to be present on the great literary giant’s estate. There he meets Katerina Trubetzkaya, caretaker of the estate, a Soviet woman who burns with anger and realism. She is also in her forties, and I only mention this because it was refreshing to read a war story that wasn’t entirely populated by young and glamorous twenty year olds. These were characters that had all lived lives prior to the war, loved and lost, been members of political movements and developed ideologies of their own. Both Paul and Katerina were well read, well educated, and their conversations were lively and stimulating, all the more so for them being on opposite sides of the war.

‘Oh, they were grand days,’ she said, smiling, ‘thrilling days. You’ve no idea. We were poor, of course. Everyone was. But there was a feeling of extraordinary possibility in the air: factories would end want, mechanised agriculture would abolish hunger, science would conquer disease. People would be free to work as they pleased, love as they pleased. Some of this we even accomplished. Homosexuality was made legal, though that was later reversed. And literacy – there’s one achievement that’s endured.’
Her eyes were shining and it occurred to Bauer there was no period in his own life that he looked back on with such passion.
‘I don’t know why I’m telling you all this,’ Katerina said. ‘You’re probably a Nazi. Are you a Nazi?’
‘No, I’m not,’ he said. ‘In the election that brought Adolf Hitler to power I voted for the Social Democrats.’
She pretended to recoil at this. ‘Oh, good grief, one of those. If it gets out I’ve talked with a petit-bourgeois socialist I’ll be shot when our forces come back.’

Tolstoy himself is a vivid presence throughout the novel, and not just because the hospital camp is based on his estate. Paul begins a re-read of War and Peace and this novel, more than any other of Tolstoy’s works, becomes a symbol for Paul, a connection to others he encounters who have also read it. Katerina, as caretaker of the estate, has a great affection for Tolstoy and has studied his works extensively. Metz, Paul’s commanding officer, develops a different fixation with Tolstoy, a more bizarre and concerning one. He believes he can feel Tolstoy’s ghost, and rapidly descends, with the aid of rampant drug use, into a manic state whereby he believes he must conquer Tolstoy in order to win the war. Not a state of mind you want in a commanding officer. All of this is unfolding against a background of a war being fought without adequate resources in a country whose harsh winter climate will act as a hand of fate like no other.

‘To be clear, I’m not saying that the novel as a form will disappear, any more than poetry has disappeared since it lost its status as the most prestigious branch of literature. But its importance will fade. Everything fades, I suppose, certainly everything made by human hands, and yet I can’t help feeling bereft to witness this diminution of the novel, which for all its inadequacies has trained us to see the world from others’ points of view. To borrow a Stalinist idiom, the novel is a machine, a noisy, violent thing whose product, oddly enough, is often human understanding, perhaps even a kind of love. I daresay some might look at the last one hundred years and say, ‘Nonsense, what love?’ but if so they are naive because the terrifying truth is that it could have been worse. Hitler could have won. Kennedy and Khrushchev could have blown us all to hell. And who knows what other horrors we’ve evaded because someone, or someone’s teacher, or someone’s mother or grandfather, once put down a novel and thought, ‘My God, I am like that stranger’ or ‘That stranger is like me’ or even ‘That stranger is utterly different from me, and yet, how understandable his hopes and longings are.’ And in the future, as fewer and fewer people use these engines of empathy, what horrors will we not avoid?’

This novel is visually stunning, allowing you to imagine the unimaginable. It’s also a love story, and not only between two people, but more subtly, for novels as a form of creative expression. This is a really intelligent work of fiction that had me thinking critically and feeling deeply.

Thanks is extended to HarperCollins Publishers Australia for providing me with a copy of The Tolstoy Estate for review. ...more

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Aug 27, 2020 Helen rated it really liked it

I was instantly attracted to this book for its stunning cover, it being historical fiction and the incorporation of renown literature ie. Tolstoy. This is a very ambitious undertaking and the author does an admirable job in delivering the many finer details of a side of war not often portrayed. Seen through the eyes of a moral forty year old German doctor involved in a very immoral situation, this book is compelling in its exploration of the brutality of war in the harsh Russian winter.

“Are yo I was instantly attracted to this book for its stunning cover, it being historical fiction and the incorporation of renown literature ie. Tolstoy. This is a very ambitious undertaking and the author does an admirable job in delivering the many finer details of a side of war not often portrayed. Seen through the eyes of a moral forty year old German doctor involved in a very immoral situation, this book is compelling in its exploration of the brutality of war in the harsh Russian winter.

“Are you a good man, Paul Bauer?” she said to him as soon as he sat down again. “Is that why you’re here?” He glanced at her sideways to see if she was mocking him. “Because I must say I like you better as a saviour of innocent civilians than as a servant of the German war machine.” “The men I operate on are people too, you know.” “Just not innocent.”

Conte covers a six week period when the German army occupies the former residence of author Leo Tolsoy. There are many layers to this book. Firstly there is the confronting descriptions of being part of a field hospital and the detailed accounts of the injuries and many deaths. There is also a strong sense of time and place - Russia in winter - the arctic cold is very much a character in itself for this story. Then there is what the author terms his ‘dark version of M.A.S.H’ with the relationships and banter amongst the German officers. There is the romance (not overt) through a love of literature and the incorporation of themes from Tolstoys, ‘War and Peace’ between the good doctor and the Russian woman left in charge of the estate. Overall, this is a detailed and precise focus on one point in time and the lasting impact war can ravage on both person and place.

‘Six weeks we’ve been here - the same amount of time as Napoleon held Moscow.”
“I suppose I should be grateful you haven’t followed his example and burnt the place down.”
“Yet,” he warned.’

Interspersed throughout the war narrative, are letters written much later by the survivors, which assists the reader in understanding how this impacted on their lives after this six week period. This book is brutally honest and confronting. It is full of horrors yet moments of love (human) and reverence (literature) for what people cling to as an anchor to see them through such times. Somehow Conte weaves it all together for a complete exploration of German and Soviets during WWII and the physical, social, emotional and intellectual strains during a dark period in history.

‘War and Peace also had the odd effect of restoring my faith in doing good in the world; because if as Tolstoy argued, we are all specks in a vast world-historical drama, even those of us pretending to be in charge, it followed that everyone’s actions were at least potentially equal, and that a humble person sometimes influences events more profoundly than did generals, emperors and tsars.’

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.

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Jul 01, 2020 The Book Squirrel rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: historical, romance-fiction, adult, man-woman-relationships, war

This historical fiction verges into a romance without it taking over the story.
The events revolve around the 6 week German occupation of the estate formerly owned by the author Leo Tolstoy, history which is woven throughout and emerges in dialogue showing the character's love for Tolstoy and his stories and adds a deeper layer to this book. This appreciation for and knowledge of Tolstoy is obviously Conte's own, and he has done a lovely job of communicating that through his characters. Certainl ...more

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Sep 07, 2020 Marg rated it it was amazing

Well.....I wasn't expecting that!

I am sure that I am not alone in expecting that, when I open a book, I am going to enjoy it. I certainly don't start a book expecting not to like it. It is, however, a delight when you start a book and know that you are going to LOVE it within a few pages, especially when it is an author you haven't read before. That is what happened with this book.

Dr Paul Bauer is a military doctor who finds himself stationed in Russia during the harsh winter of 1941. The German ...more

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Sep 29, 2020 Caren rated it really liked it · review of another edition

The novel surprised me in its beauty, in its intensity, in its most skilful characterisations and, above all, in its blending of the horror of war with humanity and a love of literature. Taking place in 1941 over six weeks at a German field hospital set up as the German forces were near defeat in their march towards Moscow, the focus was on German surgeon, Paul Bauer. What was intriguing was that the hospital occupied the former estate of Leo Tolstoy (Yasnaya Polyana), whose presence lingered/ha ...more

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Sep 19, 2020 Annette Chidzey rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This account, The Tolstoy Estate, taps into a vein of literary romanticism that I possess in relation to Russian literature and in particular works such as The Brothers Karamazov, War and Peace, Anna Karenina, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and Darkness at Noon to name but a few read many years previously.
The narrative itself is contained to a brief six week period, yet much unfolds in that time period and the setting of the Tolstoy estate is an intriguing location for the action that un ...more

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Jan 01, 2021 Leanne rated it it was amazing

Wow! 2021 has begun with a belter. For all those who loved A Gentleman in Moscow I highly recommend this. Winter, 1941 and a German military hospital unit seizes control of the estate of the revered Russian writer. Occupying the site for a mere 6 weeks, we gain rare insight as to what it was like for the medical staff coping with the cold, the isolation, the lack of supplies, the lowering morale and the slaughter that accompanied the doomed Nazi drive towards Moscow. The setting is captured bril ...more

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Dec 07, 2020 Lorraine Walker rated it liked it

I enjoyed the story, however feel the letters that are exchanged that start in the middle of the story seem to give a lot away.

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Oct 28, 2020 Hannah Watson rated it really liked it

A deeply moving and atmospheric read. I could almost feel the freezing winds of Russia and the futility of giving of healthcare in the world war setting.

Your leaders and colleagues are literally going insane. Your conflicted and struggling against the military waves of the German/Russian front.

Yet there’s a little light in the darkest and coldest of places, shining the light on the power of literature and love during war time.

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Oct 06, 2020 Marianne Locke rated it it was ok

To be honest I struggled with this, I put it down on numerous occasions and read 3 other books in between.

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Feb 27, 2020 Thomas rated it it was amazing

Metz entered a room converted into a dormitory and immediately demanded that the windows be opened.
"So tell me," Molineux went on, "how did you get to be so fierce?"
"Breeding. The same way you came by your manners."
Molineux clutched his heart as if shot. "You wound me, madam, most grievously you wound me."
"Not grievously enough."
Molineux chortled, slapped his hands together and turned to Bauer. "Hear that? 'Not grievously enough.' Sensational! We're going to have so much fun here, I'm certain of ...more

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Apr 13, 2020 Anna Loder rated it it was amazing

Such a moving, powerful story of love, war, literature and longing. Seen through a German surgeon during the doomed Russian invasion in 1941. It showed me so well the horrors of war (made iso look like a holiday) the camaraderie of war, as well as the gift literature is in times of crisis. The connection between the art and the practice. I’ve never read anything like it. Beautifully described “a coil of her auburn hair, escaped from her ushanka, was frantically whipping her face” so poignant. Ab ...more

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Oct 15, 2020 Lisa rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommended to Lisa by: Jennifer (JC-S)

Shelves: c21st, australia, war

Steven Conte’s brilliant new novel The Tolstoy Estate recreates the brief WW2 German Occupation of Yasnaya Polyana outside Moscow before they were forced to retreat.

As I said the other day in discussion about historical fiction at Whispering Gums, I know a fair bit about this extraordinary event because in 2012 The Spouse and I had a private tour to Yasnaya Polyana when we were in Russia, and our guide was an expert on the battlefield history of the area, tours of which he more commonly led. So Steven Conte’s brilliant new novel The Tolstoy Estate recreates the brief WW2 German Occupation of Yasnaya Polyana outside Moscow before they were forced to retreat.

As I said the other day in discussion about historical fiction at Whispering Gums, I know a fair bit about this extraordinary event because in 2012 The Spouse and I had a private tour to Yasnaya Polyana when we were in Russia, and our guide was an expert on the battlefield history of the area, tours of which he more commonly led. So en route, on the two-hour journey from Moscow, he gave us a bonus history of the German onslaught and how it was repulsed. It was only our second day in Russia, and we were yet to see evidence of the scorched earth policy of the Germans, so we were not then really aware that the survival of this historic estate, the home of one of the world's greatest writers, was an anomaly. But as we subsequently visited palaces and cathedrals and museums in what had been occupied territory, we saw photos documenting the way the Germans expressed their hatred of all things Russian by looting and destroying these buildings and cultural artefacts. It really is a remarkable experience to wander through an exquisite palace and then come across, in a small corridor, B&W photos of that same palace in ruins. As the before-and-after photos at this website at Russia Beyond show, not all restoration work is complete, even now.)
But Yasnaya Polyana escaped this fate because it was strategically useful. The Germans were advancing on Moscow, but were halted on the southern flank at the city of Tula just under 200k from the capital. They used the Tolstoy estate, about 12k southwest of Tula, as a hospital for casualties, and occupied it for about six weeks. In Conte's novel, the occupiers discover the significance of the building when they find tourist maps, and the central character military surgeon Paul Bauer is a bookish type who has read War and Peace and Anna Karenina. So for him, it's a bit like the literary pilgrimages I like to do, feeling a sense of reverence for the site where a great work of literature was penned.

Plus, he speaks Russian albeit with mediocre skill. (Which I can understand because I learned it for six months before travelling to Russia and it's not an easy language to learn.) So it's just as well that Katerina Trubetzkaya, Acting Head Custodian of Yasnaya Polyana, speaks fluent German, starting with a smart put-down to the battalion's CO, Lieutenant Colonel Julius Metz: 'Any half-decently educated person can speak the five or six main European dialects.' Metz is monolingual, never really discovering that he is at the mercy of those who interpret for him. Bauer doesn't tell him that Katerina has imprudently ignored his quiet advice not to identify herself as Tovarishch i.e. Comrade, and Katerina switches in and out of German whenever it suits her. But since her hostility is reckless, she delivers most of her insults in German, so that the enemy can understand her.

One aspect that I noticed repeatedly in Svetlana Alexievich's The Unwomanly Face of War, was how passionately the Soviet women spoke of their land and their desire to defend it no matter the cost. Over and over again Alexievich quotes their disbelief and outrage: how dare anyone set foot on their land? So Conte's representation of Katerina is absolutely authentic: she is livid, and she is also utterly confident that Germany will be defeated. In this respect she has Tolstoy on her side: because War and Peace is framed around Napoleon's humiliating retreat from Moscow in 1812, with 27,000 soldiers the only remnant of his massive army after the loss of 380,000 men in the bitter Russian winter.

'It's only a matter of time until Tula falls, gnädige [gracious] Frau, and when it does the whole Soviet centre will collapse. By Christmas, I assure you, we'll be well ensconced in Moscow.'

[...]

'Let's say you're right, she said, 'though I strongly doubt it.' Bauer guessed what was coming, and she didn't disappoint. 'In 1812 Napoleon held Moscow for most of September and October, and yet by November his Grande Armée was — how shall I put it? — in headlong retreat.'

'Madam, warfare is no longer a matter of rag-tag armies chasing one another about the countryside. It's total, and our strength is the greater.'

'Russia remains large, its winters cold'.

Metz gave her a supercilious smile. 'You seem like an intelligent woman. Don't you know that history never repeats itself?

'Ah, but there you're wrong. Herr Oberstleutnant. 1707, the Swedes. It was in Russia they learned neutrality. If you're smart enough, you Germans will learn the same lesson — though somehow I doubt it. (p.29)

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2020/10/16/t... ...more

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Aug 08, 2020 Jennifer (JC-S) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

‘Sir, we’re here.’

In 1941, Germany invaded Russia. In the middle of the Russian winter, a German medical unit establishes a field hospital at Yasnaya Polyana, the former estate of Count Leo Tolstoy. The caretaker of the estate is Katerina Trubetzkaya, a patriotic Soviet woman who is convinced that Germany cannot win this war. The main German character in this novel is Paul Bauer, a skilled surgeon in his forties, widowed.

Katerina Trubetzkaya is surprised to learn that Paul Bauer had read ‘War an ‘Sir, we’re here.’

In 1941, Germany invaded Russia. In the middle of the Russian winter, a German medical unit establishes a field hospital at Yasnaya Polyana, the former estate of Count Leo Tolstoy. The caretaker of the estate is Katerina Trubetzkaya, a patriotic Soviet woman who is convinced that Germany cannot win this war. The main German character in this novel is Paul Bauer, a skilled surgeon in his forties, widowed.

Katerina Trubetzkaya is surprised to learn that Paul Bauer had read ‘War and Peace’ and is a fan of Tolstoy. A tentative friendship forms. They talk of their different pasts, life experiences and expectations, about literature.

Meanwhile, the war rages around them. The commanding officer, Julius Metz becomes increasingly unstable as events unfold – poor decisions are made, and scarce supplies are wasted. There are harrowing descriptions of the conditions under which surgery is performed, of the injuries sustained. And everywhere, the shade of Leo Tolstoy.

Conquering Tolstoy becomes an obsession for Julius Metz, manic on a cocktail of amphetamines, while an appreciation of literature is one of the connections between Paul Bauer and Katerina Trubetzkaya. They may be on opposite sides in this war, but they have a lot in common.

And then, surprisingly, about halfway through the novel the focus shifts. A series of letters between Paul Bauer and Katerina Trubetzkaya which start in 1967 are interpolated into the narrative and the story shifts between the war and after the war. The ending I thought we were moving towards becomes something different, and a far richer story as a consequence.

Part love story, part war story, this novel is also a tribute to the enduring power of writing, of literature. Mr Conte brings both his characters and their surroundings to life.

I have finished reading this novel, but I am still thinking about it.

Note: My thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins Publishers Australia for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith ...more

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Oct 27, 2020 Svetlana Tishchenko rated it really liked it

Shelves: netgalley

'If nothing else, we were contemporaries, I suppose - were all children, equally innocent and vicious, before jointly taking our generation's turn on the stage' - Katerina...

The Tolstoy Estate is very atmospheric book set in Yasnaya Polyana (Leo Tolstoy's museum-estate) during 1941 winter of WWII... Germans against Russians, Russian snow and frost against German invadors. Who better than Tolstoy (War and Peace) would see and know that history repeats itself...

Reading stories set during WWII is s ...more

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Oct 30, 2020 Judy rated it really liked it

Shelves: historical-fiction, around-the-world, war

A beautiful love story developed amidst the horrors of war and opposing sides.
Conte does not depict the actual fighting, but details the dreadful conditions endured by the soldiers in the freezing winter conditions, and the difficulties encountered by the medical teams dealing with dreadful injuries.
A surprisingly satisfying ending. Highly recommended.

Epic in scope, ambitious and astonishingly good, The Tolstoy Estate proclaims Steven Conte as one of Australia's finest writers.
From the winner ...more

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Jul 11, 2020 Beej Jeffery rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Steven Conte’s erudite and graphic portrayal of a significant period during World War Two is an exceptional work. The characters are rich and credentialed, and the staging, deep in a Russian black winter, sent a conspiratorial shiver down my spine. There’s no posturing or surfeit of detail which brings this novel in just under 300 pages. The events play out in a little over six weeks, apart from glimpses into the future courtesy of correspondence between the two main protagonists, giving the sto ...more

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Oct 09, 2020 Ken rated it it was amazing

I was absorbed from the first page and engaged to the last with this excellent novel from Australian author Steven Conte. Like all good writing, the words served the scope of the story and its memorable characters. I particularly liked the portraits of the men who make up the German medical team. Conte has distilled the characteristics of disparate individuals brought together for a common purpose -the jesting fellow, the elder statesman, the young zealot and so on.
The novel is ambitious in its ...more

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Jan 07, 2021 Kym Jackson rated it really liked it

Somewhat more middlebrow than it wants to be, I still enjoyed this story. Ultimately though, I think it would have been better not to compare itself to War and Peace because it can only suffer from the comparison; it is really a historical romance novel and never reaches the literary heights to which it aspires. The dialogue is bad, and many times I thought that the Germans sounded more like modern day Australians when they spoke rather than as they would have been. A 3 star book; I gave it 4 st ...more

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Aug 30, 2020 Denise Newton rated it really liked it

https://denisenewtonwrites.com/?p=2061

The Tolstoy Estate is described as ‘a novel for people who still believe in the saving grace of literature in dark times’ and literature – particularly the work of Leo Tolstoy – is at its heart.
This novel is a celebration of the human heart and the beauty of words and ideas, even when surrounded by the very worst of human behaviour.

The Tolstoy Estate
Steven Conte ...more

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Nov 08, 2020 Andrew rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I decided to read this book because as a fan of military non-fiction I thought I would enjoy the setting in Russia during World War. As much as I found the description of a wartime German surgeon operating in the mid-winter in Russia shocking and at times heartbreaking to my surprise this is not what I loved about this book. I won't spoil it but the theme of wanting to return to something you once had but can never have again is what I really liked. The focus on literature and how it endures is ...more

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Jun 15, 2020 Catherine rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This is an extraordinarily good novel. From the very first chapter, you get swept into the story - you're right there, in Russia, in deep winter, on the German front line, you can almost smell the snow in the air and the mud on the ground. Steven Conte is a prize-winning writer, and it shows - this is beautifully written, engrossing - such a powerful story. What surprised me most was how funny the book could be - there's so much dark wit here, between the soldiers as well as in the bookish flirt ...more

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Jun 13, 2020 Jennifer Cooper rated it really liked it

Looking at the German/Soviet Union clash in WW2 from a very different perspective than the usual blood and gore war story, although there is plenty of that with Paul Bauer being a war surgeon! Part war story, part love story and all written intertwined with Leo Tolstoy's works - mainly War and Peace. It was lovely but not ground breaking, hence losing 1 star. ...more

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Sep 25, 2020 Lyn rated it really liked it

I found this book fascinating. The portrayal of the hospital unit at the Russian front , juxtaposed with the Russian culture and Tolstoy background made for an extra layer of interest. When the first post war chapter happened, I was initially disappointed, but I actually ended up liking the insights that the post war experiences gave. Well worth the read on many levels.

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Oct 25, 2020 Greg rated it really liked it

Shelves: australian, e-books, netgalley, 2020

* I would like the thank Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book. *

At the height of the war on the Eastern Front , a Wermacht medical unit commandeers the estate of Leo Tolstoy to set up a field hospital, despite the strident objections of the caretaker Katerina Trubetzkaya. Bookish surgeon Paul Bauer seeks to mollify her hatred of the Germans because of his love of the writer.

The occupation proceeds under bitter wintry conditions that the Germans are ill-prepared for, ...more

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Nov 03, 2020 Helen Katz rated it really liked it

A very moving story. I loved the main characters who were well-rounded, though I wasn’t clear on the secondary characters as much. The love story was beautifully woven into a story of conflict - not only of war but of cultures. And Tolstoy himself was also ever-present throughout. Realistic and sad, I can recommend it highly.

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Dec 14, 2020 Rachel Bourke rated it really liked it

An intelligent book, I should have read War and Peace and if I had I am sure that I would have understood it a little more. A very interesting book about a German surgeon during WW2. Absorbing and well written. I was fully immersed in the setting and characters. It is not a light read and does require considerable concentration.

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