Mystery Of Olga Chekhova, The

Description: Antony Beevor's "The Mystery of Olga Chekhova" is the true story of a family torn apart by revolution and war. Olga Chekhova was a stunning Russian beauty and a famous Nazi-era film actress who Hitler counted among his friends; she was also the niece of Anton Chekhov. After fleeing Bolshevik Moscow for Berlin in 1920, she was recruited by her composer brother Lev, to work for Soviet intelligence. In return, her family were allowed to join her. The extraordinary story of how the whole family survived the Russian Revolution, the civil war, the rise of Hitler, the Stalinist Terror, and the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union becomes, in Antony Beevor's hands, a breathtaking tale of compromise and survival in a merciless age. "A fascinating spy story, a delicious entertainment, a compelling investigation". ("Evening Standard"). "An extraordinary drama of exile and espionage". ("Independent"). "Compelling ...as engaging a read as Stalingrad and Berlin". ("Guardian"). Antony Beevor is the renowned author of Stalingrad, which won the Samuel Johnson Prize, the Wolfson Prize for History and the Hawthornden Prize for Literature, and Berlin, which received the first Longman-History Today Trustees' Award. His books have sold nearly four million copies.

Review: A fascinating spy story, a delicious entertainment, and a compelling investigation. (Simon Sebag Montefiore, "Evening Standard")

Author Biography: Antony Beevor has published several novels, and his works of non-fiction include The Spanish Civil War; Crete: The Battle and the Resistance; Stalingrad and Berlin: The Downfall 1945 which was a number one bestseller. With his wife, Artemis Cooper he wrote Paris: After the Liberation 1945 - 1949, now issued in a new edition. He lives in London.