Orphan, Agent, Prima, Pawn

The final installment in Elizabeth Kiem’s three-generation saga of the Bolshoi Ballet’s Dukovskaya family delves far into the past to the origins of a lasting blood feud.

In 1956, Svetlana Dukovskaya celebrates her acceptance into the Bolshoi ballet. But when Communist Party Secretary Khrushchev publicly denounces the crimes of the state, Svetlana slips into a trance and witnesses crimes committed against her father. Sveta’s ability to see the past grows alongside her gift for dance. Torn between her ambitions, patriotism, and grief over the loss of her parents, Sveta’s decision to expose the state that raised her forever alters her fate and the lives of her daughter and granddaughter.