Blood Red Snow White

Author: Marcus Sedgwick

Publisher: Orion Children's Books

Publication Year: 2007

Most of the readers will be: High school girls and boys.

Reader's advisory: For another book on Russia and British spies try Phoning a Dead Man by Gillian Cross.

Summary:
Arthur Ransome has fled to Russia to get away from his unhappy wife. He is a journalist reporting to the British people on Russia's war with Germany (Britain is at war with Germany, too) and later on the Russian revolution. Arthur wants to spend his time working on his books of Russian fairy tales and maybe visiting his girlfriend, Evgenia. But things are complicated.
Evgenia is Trotsky's secretary. And the British government wants to put the Tsar back in power. The Bolsheviks and the English would both love to use Arthur for their own ends. Can Arthur manouver his way through this difficult situation and create a fairy tale ending for himself and Evgenia?

My favorite passage:

Now, only a few trees ahead of him in the forest, stood two men deep in conversation. One was a Russian, the other a Jew, and they were firm friends, though they spent much of their time arguing.
They would argue about all sorts of things, but each would listen politely to what the other had to say. First, the Jew, whose name was Lev, would argue that the people of Russia should be its true masters, and while he did, the Russian, whose name was Vladimir, would stroke his small and excellent beard. Then they would swap, and Vladimir would argue that while what Lev had to say was true, they should not forget that people needed guidance from enlightened minds. And Lev would stroke his own small and excellent beard.
Then they'd each light a pipe, and have a good long smoke, while they thought what to argue about next. (pg 46)

What I really think:
I didn't look at this book very closely when I picked it up and expected it to be some kind of fairly tale adaptation. I was very surprised to discover that it was a historical fiction novel about the Russion revolution. But, I actually really enjoyed it. Sedwick masterfully weaves a fairy tale feel into the novel and has shed light on the real life of a man who went to Russia to write and was finally convinced to be a spy.