Tatiana Metanova, almost seventeen, sits on a bench and eats an ice cream. She sees a handsome soldier checking her out, and she gives him a smile. Tania and Alexander strike up a conversation, and pretty soon they find they've spent the whole day together. The attraction between them is strong and immediate. Then Tania finds out that Alexander is the boy her sister is in love with. She's crushed.
Boy meets girl; so simple and natural. The problem -- or one of them -- is that Tania and Alexander live in Leningrad, Russia, in 1941, and the Nazis are about to embark upon a brutal 900-day siege of the city. As the residents of Leningrad grow hungrier and more desperate, the Metanovs come to rely upon Alexander's Red Army resources for food and other basic necessities. Alexander is, after all, Tania's sister Dasha's boyfriend; for the sake of her family, Tania must stifle the growing love she feels for him.
That is just the very beginning of this big, sprawling romance set against the devastation of World War II's Russian front. Tania, though young and naive, is a born survivor with the toughness to withstand hardship. Alexander is trapped by his own loyalties in an impossible situation. And the chaos and horror of war grow worse every day.
If you're in the mood for a big love story - I mean a sweeping, epic, string-section-and-kettledrums love story - check out The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons.
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