Bellagrand: A Novel

"Lovely and resonant...Deeply moving." --"Anne Rivers Siddons, New York Times bestselling author, on Tully" --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition. From Booklist The white Floridian mansion seems like a dream to Gina after years of struggling to scrape by. Her relief is palpable at the ease and luxury of life at Bellagrand, given to her husband by his mother, but equally evident is her feeling that this respite cannot last. Set before Simons’ The Bronze Horseman, the book dissects Gina’s fraught marriage at great length. An immigrant from Sicily, Gina finds that her goal of a better life clashes with the consequences of her husband’s communist ideals through the strikes, war, and disease of the early twentieth century. Although the simultaneous rise of the Soviet Union and crackdown on seditious comment in the U.S. are central to the story, other historical references at times seem shoehorned in. The plot, despite some eloquent moments, largely plods through more marital squabbles than one would care to count. The central characters are richly developed, and one gets to know them well over such an expanse of time. Whether that time is well spent will depend on the reader’s investment in the story. --Bridget Thoreson --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition. Paullina Simons is the author of the acclaimed novels Tully , Red Leaves , and Eleven Hours , as well as the Bronze Horseman Trilogy. Born and raised in Saint Petersburg, Russia, she graduated from the University of Kansas and has lived in Rome, London, and Dallas. She currently lives near New York City with her husband and most of her children. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition. From internationally bestselling author Paullina Simons comes another compelling saga of heartbreak and redemption, and the devastating love story that led to The Bronze Horseman Love was just the beginning of their journey Gina and Harry gave up everything to be together. But they both want different things—from their marriage, from life, from each other . . . and from the shifting world around them. Gina, independent, compassionate, and strong, desperately wants a family. Harry, idealistic and fiercely political, wants to create a better world, a better country. At a crossroads and at cross-purposes, they pursue their opposing dreams at great cost to themselves and those near to them. Through years of passion and turmoil they rail, rage, and break each other's hearts, only to come face-to-face with a stark final choice that will forever determine their destiny. Their journey takes them through four decades and two continents, from extreme poverty to great wealth, from the wooden planks of the troubled immigrant town of Lawrence, Massachusetts, to the marble halls and secret doors of a mystical place called . . . Bellagrand . --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition. Read more