War & Peace and Sonya

Judith Armstrong

2011년 10월 · Allen & Unwin

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'Like Hilary Mantel, in her Booker Prize-winning novel Wolf Hall, Armstrong puts her scholarly imagination to work on a known period and a set of famous figures. At the heart of it is Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy's best loved heroine, seen from the anguished vision of Tolstoy's wife Sonya.'

'I always write my diary when we quarrel. There are still days when we quarrel, but for delicate, emotional reasons, and we wouldn't quarrel if we didn't love each other. He often says that this isn't really love, but that we have grown so used each other now we cannot live without each other. But I still love him with the same restless, passionate, jealous and poetic love'

In 1862 Sonya Tolstoy married the greatest author the world has ever known. For forty-eight years they shared their lives in an enmeshed union that was both passionate and combative. Sixteen years younger than her husband, Sonya bore him thirteen children and worked for years as his copyist, rewriting countless drafts of his timeless novels. Both were mercurial and personalities and, towards the end and exhausted, Tolstoy deserted her.

In War & Peace and Sonya Judith Armstrong tells Sonya's own story, exploring their devotion and ambivalence to one another, their immense passion for great literature and the creative process, and showing us just how remarkably true to life fiction can be.

'This is a remarkable novel.' - Brenda Niall

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Judith Armstrong was born and educated in Melbourne; she taught Russian literature and culture at the University of Melbourne, where she initated several interdepartmental courses in European Studies, and published five academic books. Leaving the university to write full-time, she has continued to publish fiction, non-fiction, reviews and articles for newspapers and magazines, as well as opera programs. Judith has two adult sons and one small dog.