The Star of Kazan

Description

An enthralling and enchanting adventure set in turn-of-the-century Vienna from the author of the bestselling Journey to the River Sea.In 1896, in a pilgrim church in the Alps, an abandoned baby girl is found by a cook and a housemaid.Annika grows up in the servants' quarters of the house of some eccentric Viennese professors, but dreams of the day when her real mother comes to find her, and she discovers who she really is.Then her dream comes true-but not in a way that she could ever have imagined...

Eva Ibbotson was born in Vienna, but spent her early childhood travelling backwards and forwards across Europe between the homes of her father, a scientist, and her mother, a novelist, who separated when she was three. When the Nazis came to power, her family fled to England. She lives in Newcastle, where she brought up her four children and has written the bestselling novels for both adults and children that have been published all around the world.

This year (thanks to a recommendation by Ella Risbridger on Instagram, of all places) I have binged on Eva Ibbotson, not her children's books, but her elegantly written, witty and well-observed if (after a few) formulaic fables of emigrees with beautiful burnished hair fallen on hard times. I read one after another, and rather feel your Christmas might be brightened by doing the same. So may I suggest A Song for Summer, followed by The Morning Gift, then The Secret Countess, A Company of Swans, Magic Flutes, Journey to the River Sea, and The Star of Kazan. -- Nigella Lawson * The Sunday Times *