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Synopsis:

From the author of the international bestseller Tully comes an epic tale of passion, betrayal, and survival in World War II Russia Leningrad, 1941: The European war seerandeur, where splendid palaces and stately boulevards speak of a different age, when the city was known as St Petersburg Noo sisters, Tatiana and Dasha Metanov, live in a cra one room with their brother and parents Such are the harsh realities of Stalin’s Russia, but when Hitler invades the country, the siege of its cities ainst this backdrop of danger and uncertainty, Tatiana meets Alexander, an officer in the Red Army whose self-confidence sets him apart from most Russian men and helps to conceal a mysterious and troubled past Once the relentless winter and the German army’s blockade take hold of the city, the Metanovs are forced into everand food beco scarce, Tatiana and Alexander are drawn to each other in an impossible love that threatens to tear her faerous secret -- a secret as destructive as the war itself Caught between two deadly forces, the lovers find the point in the century that e to the final, breathtaking end, The Bronze Horses alive the story of two indoreat love that triumphs over the devastation of a country at war

THE BRONZE HORSEMAN By Paullina Sirandparents, Maria and Lev Handler, who have lived through World War I, the Russian Revolution and the Russian Civil War, who have lived through World War II, the siege of Leningrad and evacuation, through faolden twilight of their lives, through twenty non-air-conditioned summers in New York God bless you

Hence in a season of calht of that iht us hither,

Can in a moment travel thither,

And see the children sport upon the shore,

And hear theevermore

-- William Wordsworth

Book One

LENINGRAD

Part One

THE LUCENT DUSK

THE FIELD OF MARS

LIGHT ca all over the room Tatiana Metanova slept the sleep of the innocent, the sleep of restless joy, of warhts, of jasmine June But most of all, intoxicated with life, she slept the exuberant sleep of undaunted youth

She did not sleep for er

When the sun’s rays moved across the room to rest at the foot of Tatiana’s bed, she pulled the sheet over her head, trying to keep the daylight out The bedroom door opened, and she heard the floor creak once It was her sister, Dasha

Daria, Dasha, Dashenka, Dashka

She represented everything that was dear to Tatiana

Right noever, Tatiana wanted to s to wake her up and, unfortunately, succeeding Dasha’s strong hands were vigorously shaking Tatiana, while her usually har, "Psst! Tania! Wake up Wake up!"

Tatiana groaned Dasha pulled back the sheet

Never was their seven-year age difference more apparent than nohen Tatiana wanted to sleep and Dasha was

"Stop it," Tatianahelplessly behind her for the sheet and pulling it back over her "Can’t you see I’? What are you? My mother?"

The door to the room opened Two creaks on the floor It was her ht now"

Tatiana could never say that hersoft about Irina Metanova She was sy She wore a kerchief to keep her hair back from her face, for she had probably already been down on her knees washing the coled and done with her Sunday

"What, Ma her head from the pillow Dasha’s hair touched Tatiana’s back Her hand was on Tatiana’s leg, and Dasha bent over as if to kiss her Tatiana felt a , Ma to be an important announcement on the radio in a few minutes"

Tatiana whispered to Dasha, "Where were you last night? You didn’t come in till well past dawn"

"Can I help it," Dasha whispered with pleasure, "that last night daas at ht? I caht" She was grinning "You were all asleep"

"Daas at three, and you weren’t hoht on the other side of the river when the bridges went up at three"

"Yes, you do that Explain to hi on the other side of the river at three in the " Tatiana turned over Dasha looked particularly striking thisShe had unruly dark brown hair and an animated, round, dark-eyed face that had a reaction for everything Right now that reaction was cheerful exasperation Tatiana was exasperated herself -- less cheerfully She wanted to continue sleeping

She caught a glimpse of her mother’s tense expression "What announce the bedclothes off the sofa

"Ma to be a government announceedly, shaking her head, as if to say, what’s not to understand?

Tatiana was reluctantly awake Announcement It was a rare event when overnain" She rubbed her eyes

"Quiet," Ma their borders back ever since losing them last year"

"We didn’t invade theet our borders back The ones we lost in the Great War And you should stop listening to adult conversations"

"We didn’t lose our borders," Tatiana said "Coly That doesn’t count"

"Tania, we are not at ith Finland Get out of bed"

Tatiana did not get out of bed "Latvia, then? Lithuania? Byelorussia? Didn’t we just help ourselves to theievna! Stop it!" Her mother always called her by her first and patronymic names whenever she wanted to show Tatiana she was not in the mood to be fooled with

Tatiana pretended to be serious "What else is left? We already have half of Poland"

"I said stop!" Maaet that sister of yours out of bed"

Dasha did notquickly to Tatiana, Dasha whispered conspiratorially, "I’ve got soood?" Tatiana was instantly curious Dasha usually revealed little about her grown-up life Tatiana sat up

"Soreat!" said Dasha "I’m in love!"

Tatiana rolled her eyes and fell back on the bed

"Stop it!" Dasha said, juht Did you just es were up?" She smiled

"Yesterday was the third ti at Dasha, whose joy was infectious "Can you get offher "Not until you say, ‘I’m happy, Dasha’ "

"Why would I say that?" exclai "I’m not happy Stop it! Why should I be happy? I’m not in love Cut it out!"

Ma six cups on a round tray and a silver sa water for tea "You till stop at once! Did you hearTatiana one last hard tickle

"Ouch!" said Tatiana as loudly as possible "Ma to crack soarown-up," Tatiana said "Our Maue re between her fingers Dasha squealed Tatiana let go

"What did I say!" Mama bellowed

Dasha leaned over and whispered to Tatiana, "Wait until you meet him You’ve neverthan that Sergei you tortured me with? Didn’t you tellTatiana’s leg

"Of course" Tatiana grinned "And wasn’t that just last week?"

"You’ll never understand because you are still an incorrigible child" There was another sirls stopped

Tatiana’s father, Georgi Vasilievich Metanov, came in A short man in his forties, he sported a full head of untidy black hair that was just beginning to turn to salt and pepper Dasha got her curly hair frolanced vacantly at Tatiana, her legs still under the sheets, and said, "Tania, it’s noon Get up Or there’s going to be trouble I need you dressed in twoup on the bed and showing her fa her shirt and skirt from yesterday Dasha and Mama shook their heads; Mama nearly soing to do with her, Irina?"

Nothing, Tatiana thought, nothing as long as Papa looks the other way

"I need to geton the bed "So I can finally have a roo," said Tatiana, ju up and down on the bed "You’ll just be in here with your husband Me, you, hi in one bed, with Pasha at our feet Roet married, Dashenka," her ht for once We have no roo on the radio

Their long, narrow room had one full bed on which Tatiana and Dasha slept, one sofa on which Mama and Papa slept, and one low metal cot on which Tatiana’s twin brother, Pasha, slept His cot was at the foot of the girls’ bed, so Pasha called hirandparents, Babushka and Deda, lived in the adjacent room, joined to theirs by a short hallway Occasionally Dasha would sleep on the small sofa in the hallway if she came in late and didn’t want to disturb her parents and thereby get into trouble the next day The hall sofa was only about one and a half , more suitable for Tatiana to sleep on, since she was just over one and a halfherself But Tatiana didn’t need to sleep in the hall because she rarely came in late, whereas Dasha was a different story

"Where’s Pasha?" Tatiana asked

"Finishing breakfast," Ma While Papa sat on the old sofa, still as a building, Maarettes, straightening books on the shelf, wiping down the little table with her hand Tatiana continued to stand on the bed Dasha continued to sit

The Metanovs were lucky -- they had two rooms and a sectioned-off part of the communal hallway Six years earlier they had built a door to partition the very end of the corridor It was allenkos down the hall had to sleep six to a large room -- off the corridor Now that was unlucky

The sunshine filtered in through the billohite curtains

Tatiana knew there would be only an instant, a brief flicker of time that bathed her with the possibilities of the day In a one And in a h the rooh the open , the slight wind

This was the part of Sunday that Tatiana loved

Pasha walked in with Deda and Babushka Despite being Tatiana’s twin, he looked nothing like her A compact, dark-haired boy, a sed Tatiana by casually nodding in her direction and ue She just hadn’t brushed and tied it up yet

Pasha sat on his low cot, and Babushka snuggled up next to him Because she was the tallest of the Metanovs, the whole family deferred to her in all matters except matters of morality, in which everyone deferred to Deda Babushka was i, no-nonsense, and silver-haired Deda was humble and dark and kind He sat next to Papa on the sofa and , son"

Papa nodded anxiously

Mama continued to clean anxiously

Tatiana watched Babushka stroke Pasha’s back "Pasha," Tatiana whispered, crawling to the edge of the bed and pulling on her brother "Want to go to Tauride Park later? I’ll beat you in war"

"Dreaan tosounds It was 12:30 pm on June 22, 1941

"Tania, be quiet and sit down," Papa ordered his daughter "It’s about to begin Irina, you, too Sit"

Con Minister, began:

Men and woovernment and its head, Co announcement At 4 AM, without declaration of war and without any clai made on the Soviet Union, German troops attacked our country, attacked our frontier in many places, and bombed from the air Shitomir, Kiev, Sevastopol, Kaunas, and other cities This attack has been ression pact between the Soviet Union and Germany, a pact the terms of which were scrupulously observed by the Soviet Union We have been attacked, although during the period of the pact the Gerhtest coations

The government calls upon you, men and women citizens of the Soviet Union, to rally even lorious Bolshevik Party, around the Soviet governreat leader, Comrade Stalin Our cause is just The enemy will be crushed Victory will be ours

The radio went dead, and the family sat in stunned and heavy silence

Finally Papa said, "Oh, my God" And from the sofa he stared at Pasha

Maet our money out of the bank"

Babushka Anna said, "Not evacuation again Can we survive another one? Alet another evacuation teaching post? I’m nearly sixty-four It’s tiarrison doesn’t go to war, right? The war coarrison?"

Pasha said, "War! Tania, did you hear? I’ht for Mother Russia"

Before Tatiana could say what she was thinking -- which was an immeasurably excited "Wow!" -- her father ju only to Pasha, exclai? Who do you think will take you?"