Written in the great tradition of epic Russian fiction, Generations of Winter is
a magnificent saga that captures one of the most fascinating chapters in modern
history - the Soviet Union in the years 1925 to 1945. Breathtaking in its scope
, masterful in its command of historical events and its understanding of timeles
s human truths, the novel has been likened to a twentieth-century War and Peace,
and it marks a bold and brilliant departure for celebrated Russian author Vassi
ly Aksyonov. At the center of this vast panoramic work is the genteel Gradov fam
ily. Patriarch Boris is an esteemed surgeon, his wife, Mary, a pianist, has two
great passions - her family and the music of Chopin. Their elder son, Nikita, is
a dashing officer in the Red Army, their younger son, Kirill, is a philosopher
and devout Marxist, and their daughter, Nina, is a free-spirited poet with a dan
gerous tendency to speak her mind.
