Vanora Bennett Libri

The Taste of Dreams is both a quest for the romantic Russia of the author’s dreams, and a tale of amazement as she discovers and gets caught up in the new, anarchic Russia emerging from its Soviet constraints. At its heart is the story of caviar—beluga, the rarest type of sturgeon, harvested from the Caspian Sea. It is now an endangered species, and no one knows how to—or wants to—stop the plunder. Intelligent, funny, and enormously engaging, this is a modern tour through the intricacies of the new Russia. Vanora Bennett writes for The Times of London and is a former Moscow correspondent for Reuters and the Los Angeles Times. She is the author of Crying Wolf: The Return of War to Chechnya.

Set against a backdrop of political turmoil, the story follows Catherine de Valois, the daughter of French King Charles VI. Raised in a tumultuous royal court, she faces a daunting future when she is married to England's Henry V as part of a peace treaty. Overwhelmed by fear of her foreign, adversarial husband and the upheaval of leaving her homeland, Catherine must navigate her new life in England, confronting her anxieties and the complexities of her role in a divided world.

A sumptuous wedding feast, two advantageous marriages and a blessing from the golden king

The year is 1527. Hans Holbein is at the beginning of his career when he travels to England under the patronage of Sir Thomas More. As a guest in the splendid More household, he begins to paint their family portrait. The Holbein family portraits frame this story with its background of love, family, and political turmoil.

From the author of Midnight in St Petersburg, a novel of love, art, music and family secrets set amongst the Russian emigre community of Paris in 1937. But on arrival, her grandmother's sudden death leaves Evie compelled to carry out her dying wish: to find a man from her past called Zhenya.

"St. Petersburg, 1911: Inna Feldman has fled the pogroms of the south to take refuge with distant relatives in Russia's capital city. Welcomed by the flamboyant Leman family, she is apprenticed into their violin-making workshop. She feels instantly at home in their bohemian circle, but revolution is in the air, and as society begins to fracture, she is forced to choose between her heart and her head. She loves her brooding cousin, Yasha, but he is wild, destructive and devoted to revolution; Horace Wallick, an Englishman who makes precious Faberge creations, is older and promises security and respectability. And, like many others, she is drawn to the mysterious, charismatic figure beginning to make a name for himself in the city: Rasputin. As the rebellion descends into anarchy and bloodshed, a commission to repair a priceless Stradivarius violin offers Inna a means of escape. But which man will she choose to take with her? And is it already too late? A magical and passionate story steeped in history and intrigue, Vanora Bennett's Midnight in St. Petersburg is an extraordinary novel of music, politics, and the toll that revolution exacts on the human heart"--