The Candlesticks and the Cross

Set against the background of the decaying Russian Empire when the mad monk Rasputin ruled in the royal court, when Tartars threatened to sack the Ukraine, and when the Jew's life was forfeit to whim, THE CANDLESTICKS AND THE CROSS is an intense, enthralling epic. It surges through the last years of Tsar Nicholas' reign and charts the climactic end of an era.

Intimately involved with the great evens of those tumultuous, bloody years is the highly placed von Glasman family. Elegant, wealthy, and handsome, landowners, financial advisers to the Tsar, and united through marriage to the royal family itself, the von Glasmans were practicing Jews-and as such subject to tragic and oppressive persecution.

The exotic story of the von Glasmans Tragic fall from the peak of romantic security to the disruption and exile includes a huge cast of characters. Among them are:

Ronya von Glasman-mercurial beauty, ho loves life almost as much as her blonde Tartar. Ultimately, Ronya must make a choice between these two passions when, in the end, they conflict.

Boris-Ronya's vital Tartar husband.

The fruit of Ronya's turbulent marriage-an impressive line of courageous sons and a loyal daughter-in-law- who become unwilling pawns in the deepening political crisis at court.

Tamara-Boris' tempestuous gypsy mistress.

The story of the von Glasman family is in the great tradition of such epic novels as War and Peace, Gone with the Wind, and Anthony Adverse, and it is perhaps because the period she has brought to life is a part of her own life that Rush Freemon Solomon has been able to blend fact and fiction with the expertise of the masters.