One Night in Winter: A Novel - Couverture rigide

“As Stalin twists the Children’s Case to his own ends, the truly magnetic power of One Night in Winter becomes clear. The stirring of our deepest fears and their unexpected resolution—at this, Montefiore is the master.” (Washington Post)

“Enthralling.... Mr. Montefiore, an English writer hailed for his works of history and biography, is masterly at sketching scenes (passionate, melancholy or menacing) and limning characters...” (Wall Street Journal)

“This finely written chronicle of privileged adults and children afraid for their lives in the treacherous upper reaches of Stalin’s Russia in 1945 is in a league of its own.” (Wall Street Journal, “Best Books of 2014”)

“Compulsively involving. Our fear for the children keeps up turning the pages.... We follow the passions with sympathy... The knot of events tugs at a wide range of emotions rarely experienced outside an intimate tyranny.” (The Times (London))

“A gripping thriller about private life and poetic dreams in Stalin’s Russia.... [A] pageturner....Whether its subject is power or love, a darkly enjoyable read (Guardian (London))

“This tightly written page-turner crackles with authenticity and if you are wiping away a tear by the end it won’t be the icy chill of the Soviet winter that’s to blame.” (Caroline Jowett, Daily Express (London))

“Sebag’s new novel draws in the reader and renders time meaningless. Brilliantly depicted.” (Jewish Chronicle)

“A novel full of passion, conspiracy, hope, despair, suffering and redemption....One Night in Winter is a gripping read and must surely be one of the best novels of 2013.” (Steve Emmett, New York Journal of Books)

“Addictive, uplifting and terrifying.” (A. D. Miller, author of Snowdrops)

“Sudden, mysterious arrests. Brutal interrogations. The crushing of any hint of antigovernment thought. Constant, stomach-churning terror. Such is the reality of Stalinist Russia evoked so convincingly by Montefiore..... This is a gripping, fast-moving tale of love, fear, sacrifice, and survival.” (Booklist)

The acclaimed novelist and prizewinning historian Simon Sebag Montefiore explores the consequences of forbidden love in this heartbreaking epic, inspired by a true story that unfolds in Stalin's Russia during the bleak days after World War II.

A jubilant Moscow is celebrating the Soviet Union's victory over Hitler when gunshots ring out though the city's crowded streets. In the shadow of the Kremlin, a teenage boy and girl are found dead. But this is no ordinary tragedy, because these are no ordinary teenagers. As the children of high-ranking Soviet officials, they inhabit a rarefied world that revolves around the exclusive Josef Stalin Commune School 801. The school, which Stalin's own children attended, is an enclave of privilege—but, as the deaths reveal, one that hides a wealth of secrets. Were these deaths an accident, a suicide pact . . . or murder?

Certain that a deeper conspiracy is afoot, Stalin launches a ruthless investigation. In what comes to be known as the Children's Case, youths from all over Moscow are arrested by state security services and brought to the infamous interrogation rooms of the Lubyanka, where they are forced to testify against their friends and their families. Among the casualties of these betrayals are two pairs of illicit lovers, who find themselves trapped at the center of Stalin's witch hunt. As the Children's Case follows its increasingly terrifying course, these couples discover that the decision to follow one's heart comes at a terrible price.

A haunting evocation of a time and place in which the state colluded to corrupt and destroy every dream, One Night in Winter is infused with the desperate intrigue of a political thriller. The eminent historian Simon Sebag Montefiore weaves fact and fiction into a richly compelling saga of sacrifice and survival, populated by real figures from the past. But within the darkness shines a deeply human love story, one that transcends its moment as it masterfully explores our capacity for loyalty and forgiveness.