'A Russian Wild Swans ... Some of the stories will stay with me forever'

Sunday Times

'Heartbreaking, romantic and utterly compelling ... An astonishing personal history of love, death and betrayal'

Simon Sebag Montefiore

'Gripping ... This fascinating book is not a footnote to Soviet history: it is Soviet history, one of the millions of private tales of evil and astonishing endurance that make up the awful whole'

Observer

'Epic ... extraordinary ... Matthews ... seems to contain an essence of a Russia that preceded the turmoils and savage inflictions that he so richly describes in his book'

Simon Callow, Guardian