Dust and Ashes (Arbat Trilogy, Vol 3)

This novel can stand alone, though the trilogy is best read in sequence. The whole makes a Tolstoy-scale epic of Soviet life, from the idealism of youth, through the confronting of reality, to a beaten disillusion. This last volume covers the bloody decade from Stalin's Terror to the turning point of World War II in 1943. Against this depressing backdrop, however, Rybakov creates romantic tension and suspense, as the reader roots for the coming together again of Sasha, the protagonist of the earlier volumes, and his still beloved Varya. Rybakov is an old-fashioned storyteller, with a keen sense of the compelling detail.