Lenin's Harem - Hardcover

William Burton McCormick

3.84

120 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 190848344X ISBN 13: 9781908483447

Publisher: Knox Robinson Publishing, 2012

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Latvia, 1905. Amidst the ashes of the failed workers' rebellions of 1905, Latvian aristocrat Wiktor Rooks finds that he has lost everything: home and heritage, his life's very purpose. Coerced into the Russian Army, Wiktor is soon swept up into the turbulent years of the Great War and Bolshevik Revolution. In the service of his enemies, he finds himself torn between the noble classes of his birth and his new communist masters, between calls for freedom on Baltic shores and waves of oppression radiating from Moscow's centre. By a twist of fate, he becomes a member of the elite Red Riflemen of the Revolution, a regiment nicknamed Lenin's Harem for their absolute loyalty to the cause. Wiktor adapts to his situation by hiding his aristocratic past. He finds friendship amongst the soldiers and love with a communist girl. When the wars end, he returns to his homeland a different man. But betrayals await in R?ga and Stalin's soldiers are soon knocking on the midnight door... Set in Russia and Latvia between 1905 and 1941, 'Lenin's Harem' is a story of nationhood, brotherhood and love throughout the most turbulent years of the twentieth century. The novel explores identity in a time of changing loyalties, and the search for a just struggle when all causes are tainted by bloodshed and betrayal.

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About the Author:

William graduated from Brown University with a degree in Ancient Studies and earned an MA in Novel Writing from the University of Manchester. In March 2012, his short fiction was nominated for the Short Mystery Fiction Society's prestigious Derringer Award.

Review:

"Lenin's Harem is a different kind of thriller, kind of what you'd get if you married Dostoyevsky with Daniel Silva. Mostly tragic quirks of fate cast the saga-like book's Latvian hero Witkor Rooks as a member of the Russian army's elite Red Riflemen corps, aka "Lenin's Harem," as he's swept away by the Bolshevik Revolution. But the real fun starts well after the war is over and his past comes calling again when McCormick's debut takes on the feel of an Irwin Shaw or Herman Wouk tale. Broad, ambitious, and plenty good." - Jon Land for The Providence Sunday Journal

"A riveting story. You can't put this one down." - Boulder City Magazine

"Lenin's Harem is an important historical fiction work that offers clarity to a complex and tumultuous time in Russian history. A prodigious and gripping read." - The Historical Novels Review

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