The Girl from the Hermitage is going on a blog tour with Rachel's Random Resources. If you wish to participate please contact me on rachel@rachelsrandomresources.com with your name, blog name, preferred post type and availability.
The Girl from the Hermitage by Molly Gartland
Genre: Historical fiction
Tour Dates: 14th - 20th September 2020
Publication Date: 14th September 2020
Formats available: Mobi or Limited UK Paperbacks
Publisher: Lightning Books
Standalone Novel
Estimated Page Count: 288
Types of post available: Reviews, guest posts, extracts and Q&AS
Galina was born into a world of horrors. So why does she mourn its passing?
It is December 1941, and eight-year-old Galina and her friend Vera are caught in the siege of Leningrad, eating wallpaper soup and dead rats. Galina’s artist father Mikhail has been kept away from the front to help save the treasures of the Hermitage. Its cellars could provide a safe haven, as long as Mikhail can survive the perils of a commission from one of Stalin’s colonels.
Three decades on, Galina is a teacher at the Leningrad Art Institute. What ought to be a celebratory weekend at her forest dacha turns sour when she makes an unwelcome discovery. The painting she starts that day will hold a grim significance for the rest of her life, as the old Soviet Union makes way for the new Russia and her world changes out of all recognition.
Warm, wise and utterly enthralling, Molly Gartland’s debut novel guides us from the old communist era, with its obvious terrors and its more surprising comforts, into the bling of 21st-century St Petersburg. Galina’s story is an insightful meditation on ageing and nostalgia as well as a compelling page-turner.
About Molly Gartland
Originally from Michigan, Molly Gartland worked in Moscow from 1994 to 2000 and has been fascinated by Russian culture ever since.
She has an MA in Creative Writing from St Mary’s University, Twickenham and lives in London.
The manuscript for her debut novel The Girl from the Hermitage was shortlisted for the Impress Prize and longlisted for the Mslexia Novel Competition, the Bath Novel Award and Grindstone Novel Award.
Follow Molly Gartland
Blog Tour Schedule
Maximum 3 stops per day. Confirmed blogs will appear here.
14th September
15th September
16th September
17th September
18th September
19th September
20th September