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The Russian Tapestry

Banafsheh Serov

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Jan 03, 2016 Tanya rated it it was amazing

I've never a historical romance novel before. I was gifted this book by a coworker, and reading the blurb went in expecting a nice love story, set upon the backdrop of WWI. I imagined a romanticised view of the War, of love letters sent back and forth.

What I got was something very different,. What I got was heartbreaking. What I got, had me crying in a doctors surgery waiting room.

And you know what? I loved it. Well, perhaps loved is the wrong word given the context. But nonetheless, I found Th I've never a historical romance novel before. I was gifted this book by a coworker, and reading the blurb went in expecting a nice love story, set upon the backdrop of WWI. I imagined a romanticised view of the War, of love letters sent back and forth.

What I got was something very different,. What I got was heartbreaking. What I got, had me crying in a doctors surgery waiting room.

And you know what? I loved it. Well, perhaps loved is the wrong word given the context. But nonetheless, I found The Russian Tapestry to be an absolutely amazing book, and I am profoundly grateful to Banafsheh Serov for writing it, and my coworker for putting it in my hands.

Marie is an intelligent, educated, strong woman, studying law who dreams of women having their place in law and politics. She is what I hope my daughters aspire to be, someone who is willing to stand up and wants to make a difference.

Alexei, if I'm honest, I felt badly towards in the beginning. He is out getting drunk cheating on his wife, while she raises their two daughters and his illegitimate daughter. I'm not sure exactly when my opinion of him changed, but my feelings towards him by the end of the book were very different.

Admittedly, I know little about WWI. It happened a century ago, in lands I've never seen. The politics in this were new to me, I had to pay attention and focus on who was who and what was happening. I usually read lighthearted fluff where good triumphs over evil and everyone leaves happily ever after, and this is such polar opposites to that.

We all know war is horrific, and I can imagine the scenarios in The Russian Tapestry barely scrape the surface of the atrocities many experience....but it was enough to have me shuddering and cringing at the way humans treat each other. And then I sit and think how although the book is fictionalised these are still things that people experienced during World War I.

I wept for these fictional I characters, and for the real life individuals they resembled.

Without a doubt, a five star read for me. ...more

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