The historical context of Alliluyeva's unsettled life, the immense monstrosity of Stalin forever looming behind her, makes her story impossibly haunting and equally impossible to put down…Sullivan's work rings a decidedly intimate note, for her focus is not on Stalin himself but on the shadow he cast upon the private life of one woman; yet it is precisely this narrow focus that lends the book its fascination. At times one feels as if one is looking at the back side of history: The picture is on the obverse. But the broad contours come through—the violence, the terror, in countless minute, heartbreaking flashes…Throughout, Sullivan treats the wealth of facts she has uncovered with a sensitive, compassionate touch…Whatever the answers to the many riddles of Alliluyeva's life, Sullivan tells a nuanced story that, while invariably sympathetic, nonetheless allows readers the freedom of their own interpretations. The complex and tragic figure that emerges offers an extraordinary glimpse into one of the grimmest chapters of the past century.
Stalin's Daughter: The Extraordinary and Tumultuous Life of Svetlana Alliluyeva
Narrated by Karen Cass
Rosemary SullivanUnabridged — 19 hours, 43 minutes
Stalin's Daughter: The Extraordinary and Tumultuous Life of Svetlana Alliluyeva
Narrated by Karen Cass
Rosemary SullivanUnabridged — 19 hours, 43 minutes
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Overview
Winner of the Plutarch Award for Best Biography
PEN Literary Award Finalist
National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist
New York Times Notable Book
Washington Post Notable Book
Boston Globe Best Book of the Year
The award-winning author of Villa Air-Bel returns with a painstakingly researched, revelatory biography of Svetlana Stalin, a woman fated to live her life in the shadow of one of history's most monstrous dictators-her father, Josef Stalin.
Born in the early years of the Soviet Union, Svetlana Stalin spent her youth inside the walls of the Kremlin. Communist Party privilege protected her from the mass starvation and purges that haunted Russia, but she did not escape tragedy-the loss of everyone she loved, including her mother, two brothers, aunts and uncles, and a lover twice her age, deliberately exiled to Siberia by her father.
As she gradually learned about the extent of her father's brutality after his death, Svetlana could no longer keep quiet and in 1967 shocked the world by defecting to the United States-leaving her two children behind. But although she was never a part of her father's regime, she could not escape his legacy. Her life in America was fractured; she moved frequently, married disastrously, shunned other Russian exiles, and ultimately died in poverty in Wisconsin.
With access to KGB, CIA, and Soviet government archives, as well as the close cooperation of Svetlana's daughter, Rosemary Sullivan pieces together Svetlana's incredible life in a masterful account of unprecedented intimacy. Epic in scope, it's a revolutionary biography of a woman doomed to be a political prisoner of her father's name. Sullivan explores a complicated character in her broader context without ever losing sight of her powerfully human story, in the process opening a closed, brutal world that continues to fascinate us.
Illustrated with photographs.
Editorial Reviews
…this measured, informative biography…paints a strong but slightly distant portrait of the headstrong Svetlana, whose every brush with adversity seemed to make her tougher…[Stalin's Daughter] does justice to the part of her that was Svetlana's alone: survivor, adventurer, petty tyrant instead of brutal one, truly charming "Hostess," though she always wanted control. It's an admiring portrait of an amazingly adaptable person facing all but insurmountable odds.
★ 04/06/2015
Svetlana Alliluyeva (1926–2011), Stalin’s only daughter, lived an almost impossible life at the edges of 20th-century history. Poet and biographer Sullivan (Villa Air-Bel) masterfully employs interviews, Alliluyeva’s own letters, and the contents of CIA, KGB, and Soviet archives to stitch together a coherent narrative of her fractured life. Its first act—Sullivan depicts her lonely existence as the motherless “princess in the Kremlin”—is remarkable enough, but as Alliluyeva slowly came to understand the extent of her father’s cruelty, she began to resent the U.S.S.R. and her role in its mythology, abandoning her two children and defecting to America in 1967. In her startling second life, Alliluyeva made a fortune by publishing her memoir, only to lose it through a disastrous marriage orchestrated by Frank Lloyd Wright’s widow. Alliluyeva also formed and dissolved countless friendships as she moved nomadically around America and England, even briefly returning to the U.S.S.R., before settling in Wisconsin to live out the rest of her days in anonymity. Readers shouldn’t expect insight into Stalin’s psyche—he was just as mysterious and mercurial to his family as he is to historians—but Sullivan takes them on a head-spinning journey as Alliluyeva attempts to escape her father’s shadow without ever fully comprehending the man who cast it. (June)
[A] measured, informative biography...fascinating...an admiring portrait of an amazingly adaptable person facing all but insurmountable odds…[and who] refused to let her lineage seal her fate.” — Janet Maslin, New York Times Book Review
“Riveting…. Throughout, Sullivan treats the wealth of facts she has uncovered with a sensitive, compassionate touch…. Sullivan tells a nuanced story that, while invariably sympathetic, nonetheless allows readers the freedom of their own interpretations.” — Olga Grushin, New York Times Book Review
“Compelling…. Sullivan takes us confidently through an eventful life…. It’s to Ms. Sullivan’s credit that, at least in these pages, Alliluyeva herself is proved…a fascinating person not simply because of her name but because she was a willful, intelligent, passionate woman who resisted being gawked at as a freak of history: the monster’s pretty daughter.” — Wall Street Journal
“[An] extraordinary book…. Rosemary Sullivan possesses the sensitivity necessary to unlock a beguiling and complex character worthy of admiration, not ridicule…. Superb.” — Washington Post
“A child of the Kremlin who as an adult defected to the United States, Svetlana led a strange and often sad life; Sullivan brings deep scholarship and sympathy to her story.” — Boston Globe, Best Books of 2015
“A principal virtue of…Sullivan’s empathetic Stalin’s Daughter is the vivid sense it offers of Alliluyeva…. Sullivan does a nice job of conveying her subject’s point of view without accepting it as the last word.” — Los Angeles Times
“In her poignant biography, Canadian writer Rosemary Sullivan tells Alliluyeva’s story with sympathy and sharp psychological insight.…Stalin’s Daughter soars on details culled from dozens of interviews and impressive archival research from KGB and CIA files. The glimpses into the Stalin household are invariably fascinating, and the subsequent wanderings of Svetlana as she searches for inner peace take on an epic quality. It is to Sullivan’s credit that she makes the Homeric wanderings of Svetlana Alliluyeva—who died, almost penniless, in 2011—not only comprehensible, but also unforgettably moving.” — Newsday
“Stalin’s Daughter is a poignant look at the struggles of a dictator’s offspring.” — Christian Science Monitor
“[A] magisterial biography.” — O Magazine
“Sullivan tells Alliluyeva’s story with sympathy and sharp psychological insight.… [It] soars…. It is to Sullivan’s credit that she makes the Homeric wanderings of Svetlana Alliluyeva—who died, almost penniless, in 2011—not only comprehensible, but also unforgettably moving.” — Newsday
“Sullivan does an admirable job of researching, organizing and contextualizing the events of Alliluyeva’s bewildering life.… It is an excellent book, and deserves a wide readership.” — Dallas Morning News
“Compassionate and compelling, Sullivan sensitively delivers the intimate, tragic life story of a woman who was Stalin’s only daughter in all its strangeness…. This is not a political story but a quest for love in the heart of darkness.” — Simon Sebag Montefiore, bestselling author of Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar
“If it weren’t for the pages of scrupulous footnotes and the many interviews Rosemary Sullivan pursued you would be convinced that this was fiction. But it’s a true story, thrillingly told in this fast-paced, fascinating biography.” — Cokie Roberts, New York Times bestselling author of Founding Mothers, Ladies of Liberty, and Capital Dames
“A detailed, sensitive and…sympathetic account of Alliluyeva’s turbulent and tragic life.” — San Francisco Chronicle
“Although other authors have provided more systematic analysis of the substance and mechanics of Stalin’s terror, Rosemary Sullivan…provides one of the more emotionally draining illustrations of Stalin’s evil.… As Sullivan makes clear, Stalin’s daughter led a full and dramatically tumultuous life.” — Philadelphia Inquirer
“A compelling biography…Sullivan tells [Alliluyeva’s] story with sympathy and verve.” — Minneapolis Star-Tribune
““With a gentle literary touch, [Sullivan] lets readers follow Alliluyeva as she wanders the U.S. and U.K….” — Los Angeles Magazine
“Revealing…. Sullivan’s biography takes us beyond…obvious truth and helps us understand, through Svetlana’s stormy history, the nature of regimes that are as brutal as Stalin’s was.” — New York Review of Books
“…[an] arresting biography.” — More Magazine
“Sullivan draws on previously secret documents and interviews with Svetlana’s American daughter, her friends, and the CIA “handler” who escorted her to the U.S. for riveting accounts of her complicated life.” — Booklist (starred review)
“Stalin’s only daughter, lived an almost impossible life at the edges of 20th-century history…. Sullivan masterfully employs interviews, Alliluyeva’s own letters, and the contents of CIA, KGB, and Soviet archives to stitch together a coherent narrative of her fractured life.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Stalin’s only daughter, lived an almost impossible life at the edges of 20th-century history…. Sullivan masterfully employs interviews, Alliluyeva’s own letters, and the contents of CIA, KGB, and Soviet archives to stitch together a coherent narrative of her fractured life… A head-spinning journey as Alliluyeva attempts to escape her father’s shadow without ever fully comprehending the man who cast it.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Insightful and thoroughly researched.… This excellent and engrossing biography is suitable for anyone interested in Russian history or in Svetlana’s struggle to make a difference in a world that never could separate her from her.” — Library Journal
[An] extraordinary book…. Rosemary Sullivan possesses the sensitivity necessary to unlock a beguiling and complex character worthy of admiration, not ridicule…. Superb.
[A] magisterial biography.
In her poignant biography, Canadian writer Rosemary Sullivan tells Alliluyeva’s story with sympathy and sharp psychological insight.…Stalin’s Daughter soars on details culled from dozens of interviews and impressive archival research from KGB and CIA files. The glimpses into the Stalin household are invariably fascinating, and the subsequent wanderings of Svetlana as she searches for inner peace take on an epic quality. It is to Sullivan’s credit that she makes the Homeric wanderings of Svetlana Alliluyeva—who died, almost penniless, in 2011—not only comprehensible, but also unforgettably moving.
A principal virtue of…Sullivan’s empathetic Stalin’s Daughter is the vivid sense it offers of Alliluyeva…. Sullivan does a nice job of conveying her subject’s point of view without accepting it as the last word.
Riveting…. Throughout, Sullivan treats the wealth of facts she has uncovered with a sensitive, compassionate touch…. Sullivan tells a nuanced story that, while invariably sympathetic, nonetheless allows readers the freedom of their own interpretations.
[A] measured, informative biography...fascinating...an admiring portrait of an amazingly adaptable person facing all but insurmountable odds…[and who] refused to let her lineage seal her fate.
Compelling…. Sullivan takes us confidently through an eventful life…. It’s to Ms. Sullivan’s credit that, at least in these pages, Alliluyeva herself is proved…a fascinating person not simply because of her name but because she was a willful, intelligent, passionate woman who resisted being gawked at as a freak of history: the monster’s pretty daughter.
Stalin’s Daughter is a poignant look at the struggles of a dictator’s offspring.
Sullivan draws on previously secret documents and interviews with Svetlana’s American daughter, her friends, and the CIA “handler” who escorted her to the U.S. for riveting accounts of her complicated life.
Revealing…. Sullivan’s biography takes us beyond…obvious truth and helps us understand, through Svetlana’s stormy history, the nature of regimes that are as brutal as Stalin’s was.
Sullivan does an admirable job of researching, organizing and contextualizing the events of Alliluyeva’s bewildering life.… It is an excellent book, and deserves a wide readership.
A compelling biography…Sullivan tells [Alliluyeva’s] story with sympathy and verve.
Compassionate and compelling, Sullivan sensitively delivers the intimate, tragic life story of a woman who was Stalin’s only daughter in all its strangeness…. This is not a political story but a quest for love in the heart of darkness.
…[an] arresting biography.
“With a gentle literary touch, [Sullivan] lets readers follow Alliluyeva as she wanders the U.S. and U.K….
If it weren’t for the pages of scrupulous footnotes and the many interviews Rosemary Sullivan pursued you would be convinced that this was fiction. But it’s a true story, thrillingly told in this fast-paced, fascinating biography.
Although other authors have provided more systematic analysis of the substance and mechanics of Stalin’s terror, Rosemary Sullivan…provides one of the more emotionally draining illustrations of Stalin’s evil.… As Sullivan makes clear, Stalin’s daughter led a full and dramatically tumultuous life.
A detailed, sensitive and…sympathetic account of Alliluyeva’s turbulent and tragic life.
[An] extraordinary book…. Rosemary Sullivan possesses the sensitivity necessary to unlock a beguiling and complex character worthy of admiration, not ridicule…. Superb.
A principal virtue of…Sullivan’s empathetic Stalin’s Daughter is the vivid sense it offers of Alliluyeva…. Sullivan does a nice job of conveying her subject’s point of view without accepting it as the last word.
A detailed, sensitive and…sympathetic account of Alliluyeva’s turbulent and tragic life.
Compelling…. Sullivan takes us confidently through an eventful life…. It’s to Ms. Sullivan’s credit that, at least in these pages, Alliluyeva herself is proved…a fascinating person not simply because of her name but because she was a willful, intelligent, passionate woman who resisted being gawked at as a freak of history: the monster’s pretty daughter.
Sullivan tells a nuanced story that, while invariably sympathetic, nonetheless allows readers the freedom of their own interpretations. The complex and tragic figure that emerges offers an extraordinary glimpse into one of the grimmest chapters of the past century.
[T]he masterfully told and meticulously researched story of a truly remarkable life. . . . Sullivan weaves Svetlana’s fascinating story with cinematic grace, bringing settings as diverse as Moscow, India, England and the United States to life with equal ease.
Through Sullivan’s extensive reportage, we are presented with a portrait of a woman whose life was defined by inherited notoriety and constant fear. No matter where she went Svetlana was recognized and judged by her father’s crimes (or victories, depending on who was doing the judging). She was a fascinating, troubled woman who tried desperately to be Stalin’s antithesis. Sullivan’s greatest accomplishment is making clear that the daughter, while not deserving of her father’s infamy, is certainly worthy of sympathy.
Stalin’s Daughter is a captivating tale of intrigue, tragedy and survival.
[Sullivan] doesn’t flinch at Svetlana’s flaws-her rages and episodes of imperiousness, her slowness to accept the truth about Stalin-but it’s also clear Sullivan has great sympathy for her subject’s core of pain.
Sullivan brilliantly interweaves personal histories with terrifying tales about flight over mountains to Spain or Switzerland and by sea to Casablanca or Martinique….At the centre is Varian Fry, the quiet American.
This is a magnificent, complex narrative of courage, folly, and complacency...a beautifully narrated book.
With tremendous suspense and emotional pull, Sullivan recounts the little-known story of Varian Fry, the intrepid young American who sheltered [dozens of artists and intellectuals] helping them and hundreds more escape from Vichy France.
Rosemary Sullivan’s Villa Air-Bel is a marvellous addition to the surging literature on occupied France. Sullivan writes not as a historian-she has little new material-but as a dramatist.Her scene-by-scene evocation of life at the house reads like an updated Chekhov comedy laced with horror.
Praise for Villa Air-Bel: “A moving and richly detailed account.
Gripping...Sullivan captures the tense atmosphere of France as the Germans invaded and the fear and anxiety of the intellectuals, some held in detention camps and some who ignored the danger until it was nearly too late.
Rosemary Sullivan’s Villa Air-Bel is a marvellous addition to the surging literature on occupied France. Sullivan writes not as a historian-she has little new material-but as a dramatist.Her scene-by-scene evocation of life at the house reads like an updated Chekhov comedy laced with horror.
Gripping...Sullivan captures the tense atmosphere of France as the Germans invaded and the fear and anxiety of the intellectuals, some held in detention camps and some who ignored the danger until it was nearly too late.
04/15/2015
Sullivan's (Villa Air-Bel) biography of Svetlana Alliluyeva (1926–2011), daughter of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, is insightful and thoroughly researched. Drawing from Svetlana's personal lifelong correspondence and interviews with family and friends, Sullivan paints a portrait of a woman at times conflicted over her sense of self, often used as a pawn in the battle of ideology between East and West, and forever caught, despite her own efforts, in her father's shadow. When Svetlana defected, she traded political oppression for freedom of expression. She also experienced the unsettling transition away from a privileged position within Soviet society to being a functioning member of the capitalist West. Her lack of proficiency with matters of finance, along with her frequent struggles to find love and happiness, were major, long-standing themes. Sullivan frequently highlights instances when Svetlana's lack of fiscal acuity or her willingness to be influenced by those who claimed her affections exacerbated difficult situations or even assisted in their creation. VERDICT This excellent and engrossing biography is suitable for anyone interested in Russian history or in Svetlana's struggle to make a difference in a world that never could separate her from her father. [See Prepub Alert, 9/14/14.]—Elizabeth Zeitz, Otterbein Univ. Lib., Westerville, OH
The damage that dictators do to their countries and to the world is bad enough. What they do to their families is also criminal. This audiobook, an exhaustively researched historical account, tells the story of Stalin’s daughter. Karen Cass narrates with skill, clarity, and verve. While Alliluyeva herself was protected by Communist Party elitism as a girl, her father exiled her mother, two brothers, and her lover to Siberia. In 1967, she left her children behind and defected to the U.S. Cass’s lively British accent makes the story less a litany of danger and terror and more a story of a woman who slowly but surely learns the truth and has to carry it with her for the rest of her life. R.I.G. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine
★ 2015-03-03
A biography of haunting fascination portrays its subject as a pawn of historical circumstance who tried valiantly to create her own life. Canadian biographer Sullivan's previous works (Villa Air-Bel: World War II, Escape, and a House in Marseille, 2006, etc.) often took her into the complicated lives of women artists, and in this sympathetic biography of Stalin's daughter, Svetlana Alliluyeva (1926-2011), the author has illuminated another challenging, mercurial subject. There is a parallel strangeness to the two halves of Svetlana's life. In her early years, she grew up in the ideologically strenuous Soviet Union, with the run of the Kremlin and various dachas. She was the darling of her supreme dictator father, but before she turned 7, her mother killed herself—though suicide was not the "official" cause of death. Svetlana was also held somewhat apart in school, shadowed by bodyguards and agents, and she learned the shattering truth about her mother's death from English-language magazines when she was 15. In the second half of her life, she walked into the American embassy in New Delhi in 1967, where she had been allowed to scatter her husband's ashes, and defected, carrying a manuscript and abandoning her two older children in Moscow. Determined not to end up silenced as an artist, she enlisted the help of former U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union George Kennan and others. Svetlana had seen her family and artist friends disappear—executed or vanished into the gulags—and she had grown disillusioned and embittered by the Soviet system, to the skittishness of American officials, who were afraid of a Soviet political backlash. With great compassion, Sullivan reveals how both sides played her for their own purposes, yet she was a writer first and foremost, a passionate Russian soul who wanted a human connection yet could not quite find the way into the Western heart. The author manages suspense and intrigue at every turn.
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940173728173 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | HarperCollins |
| Publication date: | 06/02/2015 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
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