The story of the country is told in how it affects our two families, their immediate circle and the towns of Russka.

Re-telling history through individual stories is a particularly good choice for Russka and by weaving the families together the scope of the story stays manageable. Power shifts from family to family over the centuries that they remain tied to one another for so long, and that they are largely unaware of those ties is an enjoyable aspect because the reader, of course, knows all about them. Each chapter covers a period of time, some following right on the heels of the previous chapter and others leaving gaps of decades or centuries it's nice to have the family tree in the front of the book to refer to. The lives of two families are woven together through the entire novel. Russka is set in two towns of the same name in Russia over a period of 1800+ years. It is a novel, meant to entertain - dissecting it as if Rutherfurd had marketed it as a textbook is a ridiculous sort of snobbery. Ignore the Russophiles this book wasn't written for them. In a world without Michener, I'm especially glad there's Rutherfurd. (Sept.ISBN 0804109729 - It's unavoidable that Rutherfurd be compared to Michener their styles are similar, their books tend to be EPIC NOVELS and they both like one-word place-name titles. Though thoroughly researched, the novel is diminished by occasional soap-opera twists in the narrative thread and present-day phrasing (``pin money,'' ``red tape,'' ``heads or tails'') used in distracting asides to the reader. He weaves an expansive tapestry of Russian lore with a vivid exploration of the historical influences on the modern Russian psyche. through Cossacks, Tatars, Tsars, revolution and Stalin to touch on a contemporary Russian emigre community near New York City. Focusing on the changing fortunes of the small town of Russka and its controlling families, Rutherfurd moves from the tribes of the steppes in the second century A.D. Though the structure and style mirror that of his first saga, Rutherfurd's close observation of Russia's religious and ethnic diversity give this epic a distinctive flavor. With his second sprawling historical novel, Rutherfurd moves from his hometown of Salisbury, England, the site of the bestselling Sarum, to the rich foreign soil of Russia.

Russka edward rutherfurd review