Russka: The Novel of Russia (chaptered) - Edward Rutherfurd

Written by Edward Rutherfurd
Read by Wanda McCaddon
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

Length: 39 hrs and 57 mins
Release date: 09-18-12
Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Spanning 1800 years of Russia’s history, people, politics, and culture, Edward Rurtherford, tells a grand saga that is as multifaceted as Russia itself. Here is a story of a great civilization made human, played out through the lives of four families who are divided by ethnicity but united in shaping the destiny of their land. The four families are based on real families.

Close observation of Russia’s religious and ethnic diversity give this epic a distinctive flavor. Focusing on the changing fortunes of the small town of Russka and its controlling families, Rutherfurd moves from the tribes of the steppes in the second century A.D. through the Cossacks, Tatars, then to the Tsars, revolution and Stalin to touch on a contemporary (1991) Russian émigré community near New York City. He weaves an expansive tapestry of Russian lore with a vivid exploration of the historical influences on the modern Russian psyche.

Though thoroughly researched, the novel is diminished by occasional soap-opera twists in the narrative thread and present-day phrasing (“pin money,” “red tape,” “heads or tails”) used in distracting asides to the reader