But when Sofya's letters suddenly stop coming she fears the worst for her best friend. On the other side of the Atlantic, Eliza is doing her part to help the White Russian families find safety as they escape the revolution. In need of domestic help, they hire the local fortune teller's daughter, Varinka, unknowingly bringing intense danger into their home. But when Austria declares war on Serbia and Russia's Imperial dynasty begins to fall, Eliza escapes back to America, while Sofya and her family flee to their estate outside the city. Now Eliza embarks on the trip of a lifetime, home with Sofya to see the splendours of Russia: the church with the interior covered in jewelled mosaics, the Rembrandts at the Tsar's Winter Palace, the famous ballet. The two met years ago one summer in Paris and became close confidantes. Petersburg with Sofya Streshnayva, a cousin of the Romanovs.

Eliza Ferriday is thrilled to be traveling to St. It is 1914 and the world has been on the brink of war so many times, many New Yorkers treat the subject with only passing interest. Petersburg to Paris under the shadow of World War I. This sweeping new novel, set a generation earlier and also inspired by true events, features Caroline's mother, Eliza, and follows three equally indomitable women from St.

The runaway bestseller Lilac Girls introduced the real-life heroine Caroline Ferriday.

Lost roses