Alice in Exile - Hardcover

Read, Piers Paul

3.66

271 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0297817604 ISBN 13: 9780297817604

Publisher: TRAFALGAR SQUARE +, 2001

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This wonderful novel, set in England and Russia at the time of the Great War, tells the story of Alice Fry – an independent woman in a world ruled by men – and the two men who love her. In 1913, Alice meets Edward Cobb, eligible young son of a baronet, at an avant-garde party in Chelsea. They fall in love and get engaged, but Edward’s family thinks Alice ‘fast’. When Alice’s father becomes involved in a sexual scandal, Edward has to choose between Alice and his political career. He breaks off the engagement, not knowing that Alice is expecting his child. Desperate, Alice accepts the offer of a rich Russian, Baron von Rettenberg, to go to Russia as a governess for his children, while Edward enters an unhappy marriage. Alice gives birth to a son and yearns for Edward though the Baron von Rettenburg loves her. The Great War takes its terrible toll and the Russian Revolution explodes. Trapped by the Red Army in the Black Sea port of Novorossiik, Alice, her son and Rettenberg are saved by a member of the British Military Mission – Edward Cobb.

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From the Back Cover:

"Alice in Exile is profoundly conventional, absolutely old-fashioned, and I confess to having missed a highly advertised fiesta in a Mexican mountain town just so I could stay in the hotel and find out what happened, from 1913 to 1920, to Alice Fry, her ninny upper-class English lover, Edward Cobb, and her aristocratic Russian protector, Pavel Rettenberg, who ends up being the love of her life." --Carolyn See, Washington Post

"Finally, a heroine you can love and remember. . . . It is actually difficult to put the book down. . . . This is a book of great compassion, lively dialogue and fine romance. You leave the feast feeling stirred and contented." --Houston Chronicle

"Few writers bring the past to life as vividly as Piers Paul Read. . . . Anyone who has enjoyed the best novels of Sebastian Faulks or William Boyd will love this one, and probably find it even better. . . . Utterly gripping. It couldn't be better told." --The Scotsman (U.K.)

From the Inside Flap:

"Profoundly conventional, absolutely old-fashioned, and I confess to having missed a highly advertised fiesta in a Mexican mountain town just so I could stay in the hotel and find out what happened." Carolyn See, Washington Post

"Beautifully and vividly told, grippingly paced. . . . [Read] is a joy to read, and one comes to the end of his tale with both fulfillment and sadness." Los Angeles Times

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