Let the Dead Bury the Dead: A Novel

by Allison Epstein

Overview

An urgent, immersive alternate history set in an imperial Russia on the brink of disaster, following a surprising cast of characters seeking a better future as Saint Petersburg struggles in the wake of Napoleon's failed invasion.

Saint Petersburg, 1812. Russian forces have defeated Napoleon at great cost, and the tsar's empire is once again at peace. Sasha, a captain in the imperial army, returns home to Grand Duke Felix, the disgraced second son of the tsar and his irrepressibly charming lover, but their reunion is quickly interrupted by the arrival of Sofia, a mysteriously persuasive figure whose disruptive presence Sasha suspects to be something more than human. Felix, insisting that Sasha's old-fashioned superstitions are misplaced, takes Sofia into his confidence--a connection that quickly becomes both personal and political. On her incendiary advice, Felix confronts his father about the brutal conditions of the common people in the aftermath of the war, to disastrous results, separating him from Sasha and setting him on a collision course with a vocal group of dissidents: the Koalitsiya.

Meanwhile, the Koalitsiya plan to gridlock Saint Petersburg with a citywide strike in hopes of awakening the upper classes to the grim circumstances of the laboring people. Marya, a resourceful sometimes-thief and trusted lieutenant of the Koalitsiya, also falls under Sofia's spell and, allied with Felix and her fellow revolutionaries, she finds herself in the middle of a battle she could never have predicted. As Sofia's influence grows and rising tensions threaten the tsar's peace, Sasha, Felix, and Marya are forced to choose between the ideals they hold close and the people they love.

Allison Epstein combines cleverly constructed plot with unforgettable characters in this exuberant historical page-turner, intercut with fractured retellings of traditional Eastern European folk stories that are equal parts deadly dark and slyly illuminating. Vividly written and emotionally intense, Let the Dead Bury the Dead reminds us that the concerns of the past aren't quite as far behind us as we like to believe.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780593863169
Publisher:	Random House Large Print
Publication date:	10/17/2023
Edition description:	Large Type
Pages:	544
Sales rank:	720,159
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x 1.25(d)

About the Author

ALLISON EPSTEIN earned her MFA in fiction from Northwestern University and a BA in creative writing from the University of Michigan. A Michigan native, she now lives in Chicago, where she works as an editor. When not writing, she enjoys good theater, bad puns, and fancy jackets. She is the author of A Tip for the Hangman.

Editorial Reviews

"Set against the backdrop of early nineteenth century Russia, Let the Dead Bury the Dead combines political intrigue and a touch of magic with a cast of characters you'll be rooting for until the very end. Epstein's atmospheric, compelling sophomore novel is not one historical fantasy fans will want to miss."
-Genevieve Gornichec, author of The Witch's Heart

"Epstein's unique retelling is richly enhanced by Slavic folklore, and the confusion between duty to family or country is expertly portrayed. Historical fiction fans will be spellbound."
--Publishers Weekly

"A vividly imagined tapestry of turbulent times."
--Kirkus

"Allison Epstein blends the historical and the fabulous with an understated elegance. . . the novel has an air of a dark, grim fable. . . both spare and deliciously visual."
--Historical Novel Society

"Depicted in colorful brushstrokes. . . a pleasure."
--Booklist

"Sharp as a dagger and twice as glinting, Let the Dead Bury the Dead is a fierce tale of revolution, liberation, love, and the cruel seductress of fate--all draped in the delicate frost of a Russian fairy tale. Epstein has conjured a parable for the ages."
--GennaRose Nethercott, author of Thistlefoot

"Epstein weaves a sweeping love story set against the backdrop of a cleverly reimagined Imperial Russia, glittering, gritty, and pushed to the very edge of rebellion by a dark creature of legend, a delightfully powerful femme fatale that will seduce anyone who meets her--or destroy them."
--Olesya Salnikova Gilmore, author of The Witch and the Tsar

"A haunting portrait of an alternate 19th century Russia on the brink of revolution, Let the Dead Bury the Dead is dizzy with betrayal and intrigue, snowy owls and whispering winds. Epstein is a master of suspense and characterization, and her folktales are inspired."
--Mary McMyne, author of The Book of Gothel

"There is no writer in the world quite like Allison Epstein. Her imagination and keen eye for historical detail, as well as the broad canvas on which she paints humane characters altogether recognizable and altogether larger-than-life is an entire universe. Breathtaking and luminous, part folklore and part cultural mirror, Let the Dead Bury The Dead is a beguiling read as genre-defying in its immersive universe and deft research as it is in its singular storytelling. Epstein is a master."
--Rachel McMillan, author of The Mozart Code and Operation Scarlet

"Allison Epstein pulls readers effortlessly into a world of tsars, revolutionaries, and ancient magic in this triumphant work of historical imagination. Woven from the threads of both the country's history and its haunting folklore, Let the Dead Bury the Dead is atmospheric and propulsively suspenseful, a brilliantly crafted alternate vision of a Russia on the edge of revolution. Readers will find themselves breathless."
--Molly Greeley, author of Marvelous

From the Publisher

08/07/2023

Epstein (A Tip for the Hangman) imagines an alternate history of Russia in the aftermath of the War of 1812 in this solid exploration of family loyalty and political revolution. After the war, Capt. Sasha Dorokhin of Russia’s Imperial Army returns to Catherine Palace in Tsarkskoe Selo, where his lover, Grand Duke Felix—the younger son of Tsar Sergei—has been banished from Saint Petersburg for questioning his father’s politics and harassing the palace maids. When Sasha discovers an unconscious woman, Sofia Azarova, outside the palace and carries her inside to safety, her seemingly otherworldly control over natural event prompts him to request her removal—but Felix allows her to stay. Sofia’s influence at court grows, but when she convinces Felix that a series of riots demanding land and money for the people have merit, the tsar becomes enraged, forcing Felix to flee with her—and driving a wedge between Felix and Sasha, who chooses duty over love when Felix joins the fictional Koalitsiya rebellion. Sofia, meanwhile, ignites a showdown between the palace and the people that has devastating consequences. Epstein’s unique retelling is richly enhanced by Slavic folklore, and the confusion between duty to family or country is expertly portrayed. Historical fiction fans will be spellbound. Agent: Bridget Smith, JABberwocky Literary. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

2023-08-12
Upheaval in Tsarist Russia.

After Napoleon’s army retreated from Russia in 1812, years of brutal war left the populace impoverished, roiling with political unrest, and seething with rebellion. Epstein captures the tensions and contradictions of the time in a dramatic page-turner involving the tsar’s wayward younger son, Grand Duke Felix; Felix’s lover, Sasha, a soldier just returned from the war; and Sofia Azarova, a mesmerizing woman whom Sasha rescues when he finds her prostrate in the snow. Felix is an aristocrat out of central casting: “Tall, strong shouldered, and slim-waisted,” Sasha observes; at 28, “he still looked like a storybook prince.” His imperious father has exiled him to the sumptuous but far-off Catherine Palace, where he can draw on an ample allowance to indulge his “zest for grandeur.” But Felix’s life changes irrevocably when Sasha walks in carrying Sofia in his arms. Beautiful, fascinating, and undeniably charismatic, Sofia entices Felix, as if in a spell. Sasha warns him: There is something uncanny about her. She could be a witch, a vila, an evil spirit. But with Sofia’s arrival, Sasha realizes, “the trust between them had become fragile,” and Felix cannot heed his warning. Nor can Marya resist Sofia’s power. Marya is a member of the rebellious popular movement Koalitsiya, which agitates for “legal protections for workers and peasants, a reformed imperial council, religious freedom, [and] a clear path to emancipation for the country’s twenty million serfs.” Sofia infiltrates the movement, seductively manipulating Marya, at the same time as she insinuates herself into the palace. Violence, betrayal, murder, assassination: Sofia incites mayhem. “This was a woman who could change the shape of the world with a thought,” Marya comes to believe. Epstein interweaves a brisk plot with Eastern European folktales that reveal a vila’s insidious power. Sofia, hardly human, was “like a creature from legend, an ancient spirit hungry to watch something beautiful burn.”

A vividly imagined tapestry of turbulent times.

Kirkus Reviews