Description

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Orphaned at the brink of 2000, the Lebedev siblings are alone in the underbelly of the most beautiful city in the world, St. Petersburg. Fedya is nearly thirteen and tries his best to keep them together but fails. He surrenders his two sisters to the orphanage system and joins a ring of thieves. It's not long before the gang has a run-in with the Russian mafia and Fedya becomes the focal point of a madman's revenge and a race across Russia into Latvija. His sister, Elena, is brutally bullied at the orphanage and almost loses her life, while their youngest sister, Irina, is illegally adopted out of the country. Through it all, they maintain a quixotic hope to reunite. Will the three swans fly together again? Whom can they trust? Possibly, no one.

About the Author

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Irmgarde Brown is a semi-retired librarian/manager, a Latvian/American, a long-time blogger, a photographer, a playwright and director, an active volunteer in the Havre de Grace, Maryland arts community, and a friend to the Village of Hope in Zambia, a children's home and school for orphaned and vulnerable children. Irmgarde and her late husband adopted three children (now adults) from Eastern Europe and has firsthand knowledge of the plight of orphans and street children in several of these countries. Children in the City of Czars is the first of a two-book series about the Lebedev siblings. The second book, Swan Out of Water, follows the challenges of the youngest sibling to America.