This feature is in association with NetGalley.
The Lost Daughter, Gill Paul
Thanks to NetGalley and to Headline for an advance copy of The Lost Daughter.
I can’t remember the last time I stayed up to read a book, yet this one kept me reading and turning the pages until I finished it at gone 1am.
Here is a great interpretation of what-might-have-been had any of the Romanov children survived the murders in 1918.
The story takes the characters and the reader on a romping escape through post-revolution Russia across a land rife with famine and neglect, through the economic experiments of the 1920s, into the purges and “great terror” of the 1930s, and on to the siege of Leningrad in the 1940s. And then back to the glorious palaces and gardens.
It fast-forwards to 1970s Australia and back again, with each of the eras and locations clearly indicated. In between we experience the physical and emotional pain of separation, domestic abuse, starvation, sub-zero temperatures, childbirth, broken limbs and broken spirits. Yet there is hope and happiness too.
The story comes across as very well-researched and is brought to life with colour and pomp and some very good characters. You can almost smell the fear, it is so well-written.
I loved this book. And I believed it. Every. Single. Word.
