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Apr 02, 2013 | ISBN 9781590515983 Buy
Aug 10, 2021 | ISBN 9781635421774 Pre-Order
Apr 02, 2013 | ISBN 9781590515990 Buy
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Apr 02, 2013 | ISBN 9781590515983
Aug 10, 2021 | ISBN 9781635421774
Apr 02, 2013 | ISBN 9781590515990
From the author of The Heart’s Invisible Furies and The Absolutist, a propulsive novel of the Russian Revolution and the fate of the Romanov family. Part love story, part historical epic, part tragedy, The House of Special Purpose illuminates an empire at the end of its reign. Eighty-year-old Georgy Jachmenev is haunted by his past—a past of death, suffering, and scandal that will stay with him until the end of his days. Living in England with his beloved wife, Zoya, Georgy prepares to make one final journey back to the Russia he once knew and loved, the Russia that both destroyed and defined him. As Georgy remembers days gone by, we are transported to St. Petersburg, to the Winter Palace of the czar, in the early twentieth century—a time of change, threat, and bloody revolution. As Georgy overturns the most painful stone of all, we uncover the story of the house of special purpose.
John Boyne was born in Ireland in 1971 and is the author of twelve novels for adults, most recently the New York Times bestseller The Heart’s Invisible Furies, A Ladder to the Sky, and A Traveler at the Gates of Wisdom as well as six novels for… More about John Boyne
“John Boyne brings a completely fresh eye to the most important stories…He is one of the great craftsmen in contemporary literature.” —Colum McCann, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Let the Great World Spin “John Boyne’s novel is a tour de force, at once epic and intimate, and above all a marvelous read.” —John Banville, Booker Prize-winning author of The Sea “Boyne writes with consummate ease and is particularly good at drawing the indecently rich world of the pre-revolutionary Romanovs.” —The Independent (UK) “John Boyne’s haunting novel travels to the heart of the Russian empire.” —BBC “The House of Special Purpose translates big issues of political change into more intimate, human terms.” —The Times (UK) “Boyne re-creates both Georgy’s personal life and the life of pre-Revolutionary Russia with astonishing density and power.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “Boyne skillfully evokes the wrenching pain of loss and exile while presenting a tribute to enduring love.” —Booklist “A thrilling historical novel rooted in the Russian revolution and the end of Romanov czars.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune “In this richly textured, audaciously imagined alternate history, John Boyne chronicles a long and complex marriage forged out of the turmoil of the Russian Revolution. Georgy and Zoya are a memorable pair of lovers, and as this ingeniously structured narrative takes us deeper and deeper into their shared past, our understanding of their unremarkable present is increasingly colored by the extraordinary secrets, regrets, and guilt they carry within them.” —Paul Russell, author of The Unreal Life of Sergey Nabokov
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