SASHENKA

Beautiful teenaged Sashenka joins the Marxist underground in tzarist St. Petersburg. A true believer, she survives the revolution and even the terror that follows, enjoying a privileged life with her party-leader husband—until the Stalinist tiger turns on her, as it did on so many. Montefiore uses his knowledge of the Soviet period to shattering effect when, 50 years later, a young researcher navigates the secret archives to learn what happened to Sashenka, her husband, and her children. Anne Flosnik is a fine actor who could have hit this out of the park, but she chooses to render everyone's speech in a stagey faux-Russian accent. Why? These characters were speaking Russian—in Russia. Somehow, the power of the story survives the insult. B.G. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine [Published: APRIL 2009]