Kathryn Harrison’s upcoming novel, ENCHANTMENTS is a magical, riveting story of doomed love, set at the fall of Russia’s last tsar. Sounds intriguing right? You only have to wait until March to start reading!
BOSTON AREA NEWSFLASH: Harrison will be appearing at the Boston Public Library on March 15 at 6pm. We hope that if you are in the area you’ll be able to attend.
In the vein of Harrison’s beloved novel Poison, Enchantments is exquisitely written historical fiction that will mesmerize her fans and draw in new readers.
St. Petersburg, 1917: After Rasputin’s body is pulled from the icy waters of the Neva River, his eighteen-year-old daughter Masha is sent to live at the imperial palace with Tsar Nicholas and his family–including the headstrong Prince Alyosha. Desperately hoping that Masha has inherited Rasputin’s miraculous healing powers, the Tsarina Alexandra asks her to take her father’s place at the ailing prince’s bedside. Two months later, when the Bolsheviks place the royal family under house arrest, Masha and Alyosha find solace in each others’ company, escaping the confines of the palace by telling stories—some embellished and some entirely imagined–about Nicholas and Alexandra’s courtship, Rasputin’s many exploits, and the wild and wonderful country the young prince will never live to rule. Mesmerizing, haunting, and told in Kathryn Harrison’s signature crystalline prose, Enchantments is a breathtaking tour-de-force by one of our most acclaimed writers.
Harrison has created unforgettable portraits of Rasputin and the Romanovs–historical figures of perennial interest to readers–through the eyes of Rasputin’s daughter, who was born in remote Siberia and went on to become a lion tamer, performing in circuses across the United States.
Advance praise for Enchantments:
“A stupendous work of historical imagination.” –Peter Carey
“With perfect grace, impeccable style, and great narrative flair, Harrison gives us a whole wounded world…Utterly compelling.” –Scott Spencer
KATHRYN HARRISON has written the novels Thicker Than Water, Exposure, Poison, The Binding Chair, The Seal Wife, and Envy. Her autobiographical work includes The Kiss, Seeking Rapture, The Road to Santiago, and The Mother Knot. She has also written a biography, St. Therese of Lisieux, and, most recently, a book of true crime, While They Slept: An Inquiry into the Murder of a Family. She lives in New York with her husband, the novelist Colin Harrison, and their three children.