The Soviet Sisters
July 23rd, 2024. Filed under: Tuesday's Tempting Reads.
Sisters Vera and Marya were brought up as good Soviets: obedient despite hardships of poverty and tragedy, committed to communist ideals, and loyal to Stalin. Several years after fighting on the Eastern front, both women find themselves deep in the mire of conflicts shaping a new world order in 1947 Berlin. When Marya, an interpreter, gets entangled in Vera’s cryptic web of deceit and betrayal, she must make desperate choices to survive—and protect those she loves.
Nine years later, Marya is a prisoner in a Siberian work camp when Vera, a doyenne of the KGB, has cause to reopen her case file and investigate the facts behind her sister’s conviction all those years ago in Berlin. As Vera retraces the steps that brought them both to that pivotal moment in 1947, she unravels unexpected truths and discoveries that call into question the very history the Soviets were working hard to cover up.
Epic and intimate, layered and complex, The Soviet Sisters is a gripping story of spies, blackmail, and double, triple bluff. With her dexterous plotting and talent for teasing out moral ambiguity, Anika Scott expertly portrays a story about love, conflicting world views, and loyalty and betrayal between sisters.
ISLAND BREEZES
I love historical fiction as I always learn something new. This book is informative regarding WWII and post war history. I had to look up the difference between MGV and KGB.
This story shows us two sisters who are very different in many ways. But also alike in others. The difference comes between choosing love or duty,
Vera decides to research Marya’s case. Doesn’t she already know since she’s part of it? This research is like peeling layers of an onion.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Thank you, Ms Scott.
Anika was born on an air force base in Illinois, spent her small childhood years in Omaha, and finally moved to Michigan, where she grew up outside of Detroit. She studied international politics and journalism at MSU and Columbia, and worked on staff at The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Chicago Tribune. She now lives in Germany with her husband and two daughters. Her debut historical novel Finding Clara (UK, Hutchinson PRH) / The German Heiress (USA, William Morrow/HC) appeared in spring 2020.
She loves history and wishes she could pop in and out of different eras to see how people *really* lived. She also loves espionage and almost applied to the CIA once. Good thing she didn’t; she would’ve made a pretty rotten spy.
Her author website is at www.anikascott.com