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The Last Russian Doll by Kristen Loesch

Historical fiction

The Last Russian Doll

Debut

We love supporting debut authors. Congrats, Kristen Loesch, on your first book!

by Kristen Loesch

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Quick take

This epic story weaves one family’s tragic splintering into the larger tapestry of Russia’s turbulent 20th century.

Good to know

  • Illustrated icon, 400

    400+ pages

  • Illustrated icon, Family_Drama

    Family drama

  • Illustrated icon, Nonlinear_Timeline

    Nonlinear timeline

  • Illustrated icon, Forbidden_Love

    Forbidden love

Synopsis

In a faraway kingdom, in a long-ago land . . .

. . . a young girl lived happily in Moscow with her family: a sister, a father, and an eccentric mother who liked to tell fairy tales and collect porcelain dolls.

One summer night, everything changed, and all that remained of that family were the girl and her mother.

Now, a decade later and studying at Oxford University, Rosie has an English name, a loving fiancé, and a promising future, but all she wants is to understand—and bury—the past. After her mother dies, Rosie returns to Russia, armed with little more than her mother’s strange folklore—and a single key.

What she uncovers is a devastating family history that spans the 1917 Revolution, the siege of Leningrad, Stalin’s purges, and beyond.

At the heart of this saga stands a young noblewoman, Tonya, as pretty as a porcelain doll, whose actions—and love for an idealistic man—will set off a sweeping story that reverberates across the century . . .

Content warning

This book contains scenes depicting domestic abuse.

Free sample

Get an early look from the first pages of The Last Russian Doll.

The Last Russian Doll

Prologue

In some faraway kingdom, in some long-ago land, there lived a young girl who looked just like her porcelain doll. The same rusty-gold hair. The same dark-wine eyes. The girl’s own mother could hardly tell them apart. But they were never apart, for the girl always held the doll at her side, to keep it from the clutches of her many, many siblings.

The family lived in a dusky-pink house by the river, and in the evenings, the children liked to gather around the old stove and listen to their mother tell stories. Stories of kingdoms even farther away and lands even longer ago, when there had been kings and queens living in castles, stories of how those castles had been swept away into the midnight-black sea. The many, many siblings would drift away to sleep on these stories, and then the mother would take the girl and the doll into her lap and tell tales of the girl’s father. He’d had the same rusty-gold hair, the same dark-wine eyes, in some other faraway kingdom, in some other long-ago land.

But one evening after supper, as the stove simmered and the samovar sang and the mother spoke and the children listened, there came the sound of footsteps outside the house. Stomp-stomp-stomp.

There came a knock on the dusky-pink door. Rap-rap-rap.

There came a man’s voice, which had no color at all. Open, open, open!

The mother opened the door. Two men stood there, each carrying a rifle.

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Why I love it

The Last Russian Doll is a triumphant addition to the grand Russian novel tradition. Populated with a glittering and complex cast, the saga is propelled by stories nestled within stories, sometimes shared, sometimes concealed, from mothers and daughters, grandmothers and granddaughters.

This dual timeline novel spans the Russian Revolution, the Soviet Era, and the early days of glasnost and Perestroika. In the 1990s timeline, we follow the story of Rosie, a successful Oxford student who fled Moscow as a child with her mother after the horrific murder of her father and sister. Following her mother’s death at the beginning of the novel, Rosie returns to Russia hoping to lay to rest the ghosts of her past and understand the tragedy that marred her childhood. The second timeline starts in 1916 St. Petersburg, where we meet Antonina, wife of a Russian aristocrat who bristles at the confines of the Russian bourgeoisie. Antonina soon falls for the idealistic and charming Bolshevik Valentin Andreyev, sparking a love that endures decades of conflict and loss.

Both propulsive and engaging, I didn’t know whether to speed up to find out what happened next, or slow down and savor the artful prose and deft characterization. By the end, no one is left entirely innocent, and none are unscathed in this sweeping love story riddled with betrayal and the far-reaching consequences of private jealousies in times of public upheaval. I loved this book and suspect you will too!

Member ratings (7,075)

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Family drama
View all
The Last One at the Wedding
The Night We Lost Him
Madwoman
Hum
Family Happiness
Husbands & Lovers
Same As It Ever Was
Jackpot Summer
The Lion Women of Tehran
Did I Ever Tell You?
Real Americans
The Reappearance of Rachel Price
Just for the Summer
All We Were Promised
Hard by a Great Forest
Family Family
Northwoods
Mercury
The Second Chance Year
A Winter in New York
Check & Mate
What We Kept to Ourselves
The Leftover Woman
While You Were Out
Evil Eye
Just Another Missing Person
Family Lore
Little Monsters
The Connellys of County Down
Lady Tan’s Circle of Women
Paper Names
Divine Rivals
Hang the Moon
The Last Russian Doll
Maame
White Horse
The Family Game
The Fortunes of Jaded Women
When We Were Bright and Beautiful
You're Invited
Marrying the Ketchups
Part of Your World
The Good Left Undone
The Verifiers
The Unsinkable Greta James
Don't Cry for Me
Black Cake
Olga Dies Dreaming
The Family
The Book of Magic
Sankofa
Everything We Didn't Say
Apples Never Fall
The Sweetest Remedy
The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina
We Are the Brennans
Skye Falling
Last Summer at the Golden Hotel
Things We Lost to the Water
Libertie
What's Mine and Yours
The Bad Muslim Discount
The Push
The Chicken Sisters
In a Holidaze
White Ivy
The Star-Crossed Sisters of Tuscany
Practical Magic
Head Over Heels
The Vanishing Half
All Adults Here
The Kingdom of Back
I Have No Secrets
Saving Zoë
Color Me In
Past Perfect Life
Things You Save in a Fire
There's Something About Sweetie
All That You Leave Behind
The Other Woman
Small Fry
The Winter Sister
The Rules of Magic
& Sons