In 1941, fifteen-year-old Lina is preparing for art school, first dates, and all that summer has to offer. But one night, the Soviet secret police barge violently into her home, deporting her, along with her mother and younger brother, by cattle car to Siberia. Lina's father has been separated from the family and sentenced to death in a prison camp. All seems to be lost, but Lina refuses to give up hope. Will that be enough to keep her alive?

"Sisters Vera and Marya were brought up as good Soviets: obedient despite hardships of poverty and tragedy, committed to communist ideals, and loyal to Stalin. Several years after fighting on the Eastern front, both women find themselves deep in the mire of conflicts shaping a new world order in 1947 Berlin. When Marya, an interpreter, gets entangled in Vera's cryptic web of deceit and betrayal, she must make desperate choices to survive--and protect...

Rising Soviet state security force officer Leo Demidov encounters the test of his career when a serial killer challenges his beliefs about the paradise of the working world, resulting in his demotion and threats against the lives of his family members.

It's 1939. Russia teeters on the verge of war with Germany. It is also on the brink of bankruptcy. To preserve his regime, Stalin orders a search for the legendary missing gold of Tsar Nicholas II. For this task, he chooses Pekkala, the former investigator for the Tsar. To accomplish his mission, Pekkala will go undercover, returning to Siberia and the nightmare of his own past, where he was once a prisoner in the notorious Gulag known as Borodok...

"All Arcady wants is to play soccer for the Red Army Soccer team. . . . For twelve-year-old Arcady, soccer is more than just a game. It is a means of survival. Scoring goals win Arcady food rations and respect at the orphanage for the children of the enemies of the Soviet state. But Arcady wants out, and he's determined to achieve his goal. In Soviet Russia, achieving one's goal always comes with strings attached, but Arcady never expected those strings...

Tatiana is eighteen, pregnant, and widowed when she escapes war-torn Leningrad to find a new life in America. Oceans away in the Soviet Union, Alexander has escaped execution--and is determined to take his men through the ruins of Europe in one last desperate bid to escape Stalin's death machine and somehow find his way to Tatiana once again.

When her best friend disappears in the summer of 1942, Liza resolves to rescue her no matter the cost, entangling herself in an increasingly dangerous web with two former classmates, one a member of the militia and other other forced to live in Leningrad's tunnels. There are some lines that should never be crossedeven in a city ruled by hunger. The black market is Lizas lifeline, where she barters family heirlooms and steals whatever she can get...

An artistic sixteen-year-old is forcefully separated from her family by Soviet soldiers and sent to one of Stalin's work camps in Siberia. Despite suffering through cruel and harsh conditions, Lina finds refuge in the connections she makes with other deportees and in the art she continues to create to document her experiences.