The Tsarina’s Daughter by Carolly Erickson
The premise of Carolly Erickson’s “The Tsarina’s Daughter” is that one of the Romanov daughters, Archduchess Tatiana, survives the massacre of her family and lives to write her memoir as an old woman.
Now, this premise immediately puts “The Tsarina’s Daughter” more squarely in the camp of ‘fiction’ than ‘history’ as we know that Tatiana did not, in fact, survive – nor did anyone in the family. Beyond that, I would guess that many of the specifics about Tatiana’s life: her loves, her journeys out of the palace, her feelings about her family. That being said, I did very much enjoy this book as a way to get a feel for some of the more major events and the mood in Europe and Russia around the time of the Russian Revolution. Tatiana was a great character and I appreciated how she grew to see both sides of the conflict; although she loved her parents, she was not blind to their disasterous flaws and was increasingly frustrated by these flaws as she grew older and the situation around her grew worse.
Overall this was an enjoyable piece of historical fiction and would be a good jumping off point for readers who want to explore revolutionary Russia.
Note: I consumed this as an audiobook. The narrator was good; not ‘oh my gosh! fantastic!’ like the narrators for “America America” or “The Thirteenth Tale,” but did a good job keeping me in the story (although I did get a bit annoyed at some of her voices for Tatiana’s sisters).
The cover of this one haunting isn’t it? I do enjoy historical fiction but I have to be in the right mood for it. You are so funny with all your audio books. Smart.. really.
Ti’s last blog post..Review: The Laws of Harmony
Ha, I know! Ever since my husband and I went on that babymoon and took an audiobook for the drive I’ve been hooked.
Just out of curiosity, do you know if Carolly Erickson conceived of this before or after they discovered the last Romanov bones? Sounds fairly interesting though, I don’t read enough historical fiction about Russia.
Meghan’s last blog post..Review: The Sum of Our Days, Isabel Allende
I think it was after, or at least she finished the book after they were found. I’m fairly sure that was mentioned in the author’s note at the end, that no, none of the Romanovs actually survived.
I’ve been wondering about this one. After your review, I will definitely get my hands on a copy!
I was just thinking about this book and the author’s other Russian historical fiction in conjunction with my “Queens of Summer” theme for my Facebook book club. I enjoyed the author’s The Last Wife of Henry VIII.” It sounds like this book is enjoyable as well. Sometimes it’s fun to live a “what if” scenario in a book. Great review! I don’t think this will work for my theme, but this is definitely something I’m going to read at some point.
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100% agree with your review, as we discussed on Twitter – it was an enjoyable book, but anyone who needs their historically fiction to be accurate will probably not like it as much!
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