A review by acmurray
Russka by Edward Rutherfurd

4.0

This was the first Edward Rutherford book I read, and I was immediately taken in by both the book itself and its genre. Edward Rutherford writes location-based historical fiction--that is, instead of recounting an important life or event, he selects a location (in this case, a town in the Ukraine) and spins his tale around the place. This book begins in preliterate Russia and ends with the fall of the Soviet Union, always centering around one area (actually two, the original town Russka "moves" at one point) and two main families, one boyar family and one peasant one. But unlike his predecessor and mentor, [author: James Michener], Rutherford's characters possess only some inherited characteristics for the sake of continuity but are unique people. Realistically, the characters largely unaware of anything that happened more than a few generations back, and Rutherford skillfully avoids falling into the temptation of preserving unrealistic continuity--heirlooms get lost, family lines die out, fortunes change. An excellent and absorbing read, not to mention educational--the books are also well researched and carefully written.