"Bob Lee Swagger is in love--with a woman who died 70 years ago. Ludmilla "Mili" Petrova was a great Russian sniper in World War II until she disappeared on a mission and was virtually erased from history. When Kathy Reilly of the Washington Post encounters a brief mention of Petrova in an old Russian propaganda magazine, she begins building a story around the legendary female sniper, who was once dubbed Die Weisse Hexe--The White Witch--and lauded...

Marina Makarova, a young woman of privilege coming of age in 1916 St. Petersburg, finds her life and ambitions upended by historical events that find her joining the cause for workers' rights, falling in love with a radical poet, and navigating devastating betrayals.