The never-before-told story of the journey behind The Bronze Horseman, now in audio for the first time.

From the author of the celebrated, internationally best-selling The Bronze Horseman saga comes a glimpse into the private life of its much loved creator and the real story behind the epic novels. Paullina Simons gives us a work of nonfiction as captivating and heartwrenching as the lives of Tatiana and Alexander.

Only a few chapters into writing her first story set in Russia, her mother country, Paullina Simons traveled to Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) with her beloved Papa. What began as a research trip turned into six days that forever changed her life, the course of her family, and the novel that became The Bronze Horseman. After a quarter-century away from her native land, Paullina and her father found a world trapped in yesteryear, with crumbling stucco buildings, entire families living in seven-square-meter communal apartments, and barren fields bombed so badly that nothing would grow there even 50 years later. And yet there were the spectacular white nights, the warm hospitality of family friends, and, of course, the pelmeni and caviar.

At times poignant, at times inspiring and funny, this is both a fascinating glimpse into the inspiration behind the epic saga and a touching story of a family's history, a father and a daughter, and the fate of a nation.