A Soul Pact in Wind and Snow

Russian winters are long and bitterly cold. A blizzard can easily scatter a fleeting desire, yet temper the vows deep within the soul. This collection carries on the tradition of Russian love literature, telling four stories of passionate, ardent love while refusing the tragedy of passion that burns itself to ashes. A girl in a birch grove feels her heart leap, yet keeps her self-respect in the face of infatuation. A forester in the wilderness and a woman who has endured hardship see the cracks in each other’s souls, yet choose to share the burden of sin and winter. Lovers on a country estate lay bare all their flaws before marriage, then resist temptation through the quiet years. A writer and his beloved in a turbulent age hold fast to their vow of the soul amid a world in upheaval. Love here has the surging intensity unique to Russian literature, yet it comes with its own kind of “assurance”: passion is the instinctive rush toward one another, while a pledge is a choice made again and again with clear eyes. Love may face snowstorms, poverty, estrangement, and the crushing weight of the times. Assurance does not promise a life without hardship. It means never abandoning, disparaging, or disappointing one another, no matter how fate may torment you. Flames burn upon frozen soil, and integrity rises beneath passion. This is another kind of love on the snowy plains.