Set in the years leading up to and following the Russian revolution, this diptych of novels traces the fortunes of Jeanne, an actress whose career is cut short by the events of 1917 in Odessa. Driven into hiding during the Civil War, her world collapses as her family is destroyed.

After Arkadia (Penguin international writers)

Literature & Fiction

Bielski, Nella

Contemporary

Penguin Books, Ltd.

The Year Is '42: A Novel

In this intimate novel about ordinary lives lived under the extraordinary circumstances of war, we meet Karl Bazinger, a sophisticated Wehrmacht officer who is living the high life in Occupied Paris. With his French girlfriend, his glamorous dinner companions (Coco Chanel, Jean Cocteau, and a suspected spy for the British), and his open disdain for the Nazis, Karl begins to attract the attention of the SS. He is drawn into further trouble when he receives a suspicious visit from Hans, his best friend from Saxony, who may be involved in resistance activities. To lower his profile, Karl requests a transfer to the Eastern Front and sets off on a journey into a very different experience of war. As a terrible fate for Hans is sealed, Karl is posted to Kiev, where he discovers the extent of the Nazi atrocities in the region and begins to suffer from a mysterious nervous ailment. In the novel’s final twist, the ministrations of an “enemy” doctor—a beautiful, stoic Russian woman with her own painful history—will heal Karl and offer him a vital connection to hope and goodness in the midst of hell. The Year Is ’42 communicates the enormity of war with immediacy and intelligence. Urbane, subtle, and elegiac, this small masterpiece captures the myriad gradations of moral position that war demands of those who serve, those who resist, and those who stand and wait.

Pantheon

A question of geography

BERGER, JOHN

Faber and Faber Ltd.

Goya's Last Portrait: The Painter Played Today

Goya's Last Portrait: The Painter Played Today

Dramas & Plays

Faber&Faber

Set in the years leading up to and following the Russian Revolution, this diptych of novels traces the fortunes of Jeanne, an actress of the silent screen whose career is cut short and transformed by the events of 1917 in Odessa.

After Arkadia

VIKING

Liola recalls her defense of Alexander Levy, a young Jewish student accused of being a moral degenerate, her Russian youth, her marriage, and her mother's deathbed in a Russian hospital

Oranges For The Son Of Alexander Levy

Literary

Writers & Readers

Wehrmacht officer Karl Bazinger is living the high life in Occupied Paris. But with his glamorous dinner companions and his open disdain for the Nazis, he begins to attract the attention of the SS. He is drawn into further trouble when he receives a suspicious visit from a friend who may be involved in resistance activities. To lower his profile, Karl requests a transfer to Kiev, where he discovers the extent of the Nazi atrocities. He then begins to suffer from a mysterious ailment, and through the ministrations of a beautiful Russian doctor, he finds his vital reconnection to hope. Urbane, subtle, and elegiac, The Year is ’42 is a moving portrait of ordinary lives lived under the extraordinary circumstances of war.

Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

A uniquely feminine meditation on death and absence: the absence of the heroine's husband, of the intense life of her childhood in war time Russia, of friends and family who vanished in the Gulag.

Oranges for the Son of Alexander Levy

Arcadia Books Ltd

La Pulpe de l'étreinte: Récit d'une expérience de Rilke

Genre Fiction

TEMPS IL FAIT

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Bielski, Nella. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Bielski, Nella

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Bielski, Nella. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

After Arkadia (Penguin international writers)

The Year Is '42: A Novel

A question of geography

Goya's Last Portrait: The Painter Played Today

After Arkadia

Oranges For The Son Of Alexander Levy

The Year Is '42: A Novel

Oranges for the Son of Alexander Levy

La Pulpe de l'étreinte: Récit d'une expérience de Rilke