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08.05: J. M. Sidorova
2013-07-10 20:35:59| Powells Books Events Calendar
J. M. Sidorova's The Age of Ice (Scribner) is an epic debut novel about a lovelorn 18th-century Russian noble, cursed with longevity and an immunity to cold, whose quest for the truth behind his condition spans two thrilling centuries and a stunning array of historical events. St. Petersburg, Russia, 1740: the Empress Anna Ioannovna has issued her latest eccentric order — construct a palace out of ice blocks. Inside its walls her slaves build a wedding chamber, a canopy bed on a dais, heavy drapes cascading to the floor — all made of ice. Sealed inside are a disgraced nobleman and a deformed female jester. On the empress's command — for her entertainment — these two are to be married, the relationship consummated inside this frozen prison. In the morning, guards enter to find them half-dead. Nine months later, two boys are born. Sidorova's boldly original and genre-bending novel takes readers from the grisly fields of the Napoleonic Wars to the blazing heat of Afghanistan, from the outer reaches of Siberia to the cacophonous streets of 19th-century Paris.
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