Red Sky at Noon: A Novel
Epic history meets epic literature with Simon Sebag Montefiore, the New York Times bestselling author of Jerusalem and The Romanovs.
Montefiore discusses his stunning new Red Sky at Noon, set during an epic cavalry ride across the hot grasslands outside Stalingrad during the darkest times of World War II—and the incredible history behind it.
Imprisoned in the Gulags for a crime he did not commit, Benya Golden joins a penal battalion made up of Cossacks and convicts to fight the Nazis. He enrolls in the Russian cavalry, and on a hot summer day in July 1942, he and his band of brothers are sent on a suicide mission behind enemy lines―but is there a traitor among them? The only things Benya can truly trust are his horse, Silver Socks, and that he will find no mercy in the onslaught of Hitler’s troops as they push East.
Spanning ten epic days, between Benya’s war on the grasslands of southern Russia and Stalin’s intrigues in the Kremlin, between Benya’s intense affair with an Italian nurse and a romance between Stalin’s daughter and a war correspondent, this is a sweeping story of passion, bravery, and survival―where betrayal is a constant companion, death just a heartbeat away, and love, however fleeting, offers a glimmer of redemption.
“Enthralling. Montefiore, hailed for his works of history and biography, is masterly at sketching scenes―passionate, melancholy, menacing―and limning characters. In a league of its own.” - The Wall Street Journal, “Best Book of the Year” (Praise for THE MOSCOW TRILOGY)
“Montefiore is a natural storyteller who brings his encyclopedic knowledge of Russian history to life in language that glitters. Montefiore shows that the historian seeking the truth must call upon creativity as much as upon meticulous research. Here’s hoping we get more spellbinding historical fiction from him.” - The Washington Post
“Intensely moving, with an unforgettable climax that will touch the hardest heart.” - Jung Chang, author of Wild Swans and Mao
“Riveting, evocative, affecting and tragic. Montefiore is a masterful writer and a marvelous storyteller, and the way he peels back the layers propels the reader onward, eager to learn the key to the mystery. ” - The Seattle Times
Simon Sebag Montefiore’s prize-winning, bestselling novels are published in twenty-seven languages. Red Sky at Noon is the last of the acclaimed “Moscow Trilogy,” which includes Sashenka and One Night in Winter, which was long-listed for the Orwell Prize. Montefiore’s nonfiction books include Jerusalem: The Biography, a #1 Holiday Book Pick on the TODAY show, Young Stalin, winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography, and most recently, The Romanovs, which was a New York Times bestseller. Visit him at www.simonsebagmontefiore.com or on twitter @simonmontefiore.
Publisher: Pegasus Books
Photo credit: Simon Sebag Montefiore
DEADLINE FOR REGISTRATION: Wednesday, January 10, 2018.
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