Devushka: The Winter's Tale

By S. Pearce

Near a rural village to the north of St Petersburg, in the winter of 1900, a prank by an impish rogue goes awry and the perpetrator is seriously injured. The accident is witnessed by Aleksandra, a young girl on her way to school, and she rushes to help. This sets in motion an unlikely bond as, unbeknown to the girl, the imp watches over her while she struggles to come to terms with the extraordinary skills her encounter with the magical spirit have inadvertently bestowed upon her. Violently rejected by her superstitious mother, she flees the family home and finds sanctuary in St Petersburg. But the city is descending into chaos and revolution as labourers, industrialists and the intelligentsia grow increasingly dissatisfied with the Tsarist autocracy of Imperial Russia. As she adjusts to her new and often dangerous life in the capital Aleksandra loses and also reestablishes friendships. She falls in with a band of criminals, rubs shoulders with the Archpriest of Kronstadt and meets a group of disaffected students. All the while, she is developing her sense of purpose in a world which just cannot seem to settle.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1689791861
• ISBN13: 9781689791861
• Release Date: November 2019
• Publisher: Independently published
• Length: 286 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.7" x 6.0"