Kristin Hannah · 2010 · exile

Kristin Hannah's 2010 novel. Two estranged sisters in Washington State, at their father's deathbed, coax from their cold Russian mother a fairy tale that proves to be the buried truth of her own life - the siege of Leningrad. As the mother's story unfolds, the family travels to Alaska to uncover what really happened in wartime Russia, and the frozen past reshapes them all.

1. 1
   Washington

   The apple orchards of Washington State, where the estranged Whitson sisters gather at their beloved father's deathbed and are asked to finally listen to their distant mother's story.

2. 2
   Leningrad

   The mother's hidden past: the 900-day Nazi siege of Leningrad, a tale of love, starvation and unbearable loss that she has told only as a fairy tale for decades.

3. 3
   Alaska

   Where the sisters travel to uncover the documentary truth behind their mother's story, and a final revelation binds the wartime past to their own lives.