Paullina Simons
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Paullina Simons is the international best-selling author of the novels Tully, Red Leaves, Eleven Hours, The Bronze Horseman, Tatiana and Alexander, The Girl In Times Square and The Summer Garden.
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[edit] Background
Born in Leningrad, USSR in 1963, her childhood dream of becoming a writer was put on hold when her family immigrated to the United States when she was ten. There she learnt to speak English.
Simons attended colleges in New York, Kansas and England, graduating from Kansas University with a degree in political science. She worked as a financial journalist on the Financial News Network, and translator among other various jobs before Tully, her first novel, was written and released.
Although her most well known book is The Bronze Horseman, many of Paullina's novels have reached international bestseller lists in countries including Australia and New Zealand.
All of her books have been published with Flamingo or Harper Collins.
Simons and her second husband Kevin Ryan live in Long Island, New York and have four children. From oldest to youngest they are Natasha, Misha, Kevin Jr., and Tatiana (named after the heroine in The Bronze Horseman).
[edit] Novels
[edit] Tully
Tully Makker is a tough young woman from the wrong side of the tracks and she is not always easy to like.
But if Tully gives friendship and loyalty, she gives them for good, and she forms an enduring bond with Jennifer and Julie, schoolfriends from very different backgrounds.
As they grow into the world of the seventies and eighties, the lives of the three best friends are changed forever by two young men, Robin and Jack, and a tragedy engulfs them all.
Against the odds, Tully emerges into young womanhood, marriage and a career. At last Tully Makker has life under control.
And then life strikes back in the most unexpected way of all...
Powerful, enchanting, extraordinary, Tully is one of the most exciting debut novels for many years from an astonishing young writer.
[edit] Red Leaves
On a New England college campus, the naked body of a beautiful student is found frozen in a bank of snow. Why had she not even been reported missing by her friends?
Spencer O'Malley, the police detective assigned to the case, is soon drawn into the disturbing world of four friends, Jim, Conni, Albert and Kristina. O'Malley finds that these children of privilege who played, studied, and occasionally slept together also kept secrets of their own, secrets that must be pieced together to form an entirely new picture.
O'Malley is a stranger in this Ivy League environment, yet he feels an affinity with the victim. In her death, he gradually discovers the truth of her mysterious and complex life, and each revelation is more shocking than the last.
Suspensful, claustrophobic and utterly compelling, Red Leaves puts Paullina Simons in the very front rank of contemporary writers.
[edit] Eleven Hours
On the eve of giving birth to her third child, Didi Wood goes to the mall to escape the Dallas heat and do a little shopping. She is supposed to meet her husband for lunch in an hour, but a chance encounter with a stranger changes everything. When Didi does not show up, Richard Wood first gets worried, then anxious, then frantic. And with good reason. His pregnant wife seems to have vanished off the face of the earth.
As the FBI joins Richard in a desperate search for his wife and unborn child, Didi’s terrifying eleven-hour ride takes her to the brink of all endurance and puts her on a collision course with fate itself.
With Eleven Hours, Paullina Simons has created a new kind of thriller, psychological drama at its best and a suspense-filled journey straight into the heart of darkness.
[edit] The Bronze Horseman
Leningrad 1941: the white nights of summer illuminate a city of fallen grandeur whose beautiful palaces and stately avenues speak of a different age, when Leningrad was known as St Petersburg.
Two sisters, Tatiana and Dasha, share the same bed, living in one room with their brother and parents. It is a hard, impoverished life, yet the Metanovs know many who are not as fortunate as they.
The family routine is shattered on 22 June 1941 when Hitler invades Russia. For the Metanovs, for Leningrad and for Tatiana, life will never be the same again. On the fateful day, Tatiana meets a brash young officer named Alexander.
Tatiana and her family suffer as Hitler's army advances on Leningrad, and the Russian winter closes in. With bombs falling and the city under siege, Tatiana and Alexander are drawn to each other in an impossible love. It is a love that could tear Tatiana's family apart, a love that carries a secret that could mean death for anyone who hears it.
Confronted on the one hand by Hitler's unstoppable war machine, and on the other by a Soviet system determined to crush the human spirit, Tatiana and Alexander are pitted against the very tide of history, at a turning point in the century that made the modern world.
Mesmerizing from the very first page to the final, breathtaking end, The Bronze Horseman brings alive the story of two indomitable, heroic spirits and their great love that triumphs over the devastation of a country at war.
[edit] The Bridge To Holy Cross/Tatiana and Alexander
Tatiana is eighteen years old and pregnant when she miraculously escapes war-torn Leningrad to the West, believing herself to be a widow. Her husband, Major Alexander Belov, a decorated hero of the Soviet Union, has been arrested by Stalin's infamous secret police and is awaiting execution as a traitor and a spy.
Tatiana begins her new life in America. In wartime New York City she finds work, friends and a life beyond her dreams. However, her grief is ineacapable and she keeps hearing Alexander calling out to her.
Meanwhile, Alexander faces the greatest danger he's ever known. An American trapped in Russia since adolescence, he has been serving in the Red Army and impersonating a Soviet citizen to protect himself. For him, Russia's war is not over, and both victory and defeat will mean certain death.
As the Second World War moves towards its horrific close, Tatiana and Alexander are surrounded by the ghosts of their past and of each other. In the ruins of Europe, Alexander can't escape Stalin's power. Far away, Tatiana must think first of their son Anthony. They must struggle against destiny and despair in the fight of their lives.
A master of historical epic, Paullina Simons takes us on a journey across continents, time and the entire breadth of human emotion, to create a heartendingly beautiful love story that will live long after the final page is turned.
[edit] The Girl In Times Square
- Available in Australia and New Zealand.
- Now available in the UK.
Meet Lily Quinn. She is broke, struggling to finish college, pay her rent, find love. Adrift in bustling New York City, the most interesting things in Lily's life happen to the people around her. But Lily loves her aimless life ... until her best friend and roommate Amy disappears. That's when Spencer Patrick O'Malley, a cynical, past his prime NYPD detective with demons of his own, enters Lily's world. And a sudden financial windfall which should bring Lily joy instead becomes an ominous portent of the dark forces gathering around her.
But fate isn't finished with Lily.
She finds herself fighting for her life as Spencer's search for the missing Amy intensifies, leading Lily to question everything she knew about her friend and family. Startling revelations about the people she loves force her to confront truths that will leave her changed forever.
[edit] The Summer Garden
- Available in Australia and New Zealand.
- Release date for UK: March 2007.
From the bestselling author of The Girl in Times Square, comes the magnificent conclusion to the saga that was set in motion when Tatiana fell in love with her Red Army officer, Alexander Belov, in wartime Leningrad in 1941.
Tatiana and Alexander have suffered the worst the twentieth century had to offer. After years of separation, they are miraculously reunited in America, the land of their dreams. They have a beautiful son, Anthony. They have proved to each other that their love is greater than the vast evil of the world ... but they are strangers. In the climate of fear and mistrust of the Cold War, dark forces are at work in the US that threaten their life and their family. Can they make a new life for themselves in this new land? Can they be happy? Or will the ghosts of yesterday reach out to blight even the destiny of their firstborn son? Epic in scope, masterfully told, The Summer Garden is a novel of unique and devastating emotional power that spans two thirds of the twentieth century, and three continents. The Summer Garden. For what once was ...
[edit] Next Release: The Bartered Bride
Simons' next novel is called The Bartered Bride. The expected publication date at present is August 2007 for Australia and New Zealand. Other release dates are still to be confirmed.
The Bartered Bride Teaser, according to Simons:
"The title is taken from Smetana’s opera, but the story bears only a passing resemblance to that comedy of errors. This is more a tragedy of errors that becomes a comedy that becomes a tragedy." -PaullinaSimons.com
[edit] The Bartered Bride: Smetana
The Bartered Bride is a comic opera by Bedřich Smetana.
Synopsis: Mařenka and Jeník want to marry. However, Mařenka’s father, Krušina, has other ideas. He wants Mařenka to marry a boy she has never met, Vašek, the son of Micha, who is a wealthy landowner. The marriage-broker Kecal is hired to broker the marriage between Mařenka and Vašek. Kecal is made aware of the relationship between Mařenka and Jeník, and becomes determined to break them up in order to facilitate the marriage of Mařenka with Vašek. Mařenka and Vašek meet each other by accident, and while Mařenka works out who Vašek is, Vašek, on the other hand, is too much of a simpleton to realize who she is, and Mařenka starts painting a picture of Vašek’s intended bride as a woman who would make his life a total misery if he should marry her. This turns Vašek off the idea of marrying his intended wife, and also makes him interested in this girl who obviously has his best interests at heart. Meanwhile, Kecal starts his campaign to pay off Jeník, so that Jeník will renounce his right to marry Mařenka. Kecal eventually reaches a price with Jeník finds agreeable, and Jeník agrees to barter his bride away for 300 guilders. Jeník also specifies that this is on condition that Mařenka marries Mícha’s son. Since Kecal intends Mařenka to marry Vašek, so that he can get his money, he readily agrees. As soon as the contract is signed, the entire town repudiates Jeník.
A travelling circus comes to town, and Vašek becomes entranced with the gypsy, Esmeralda. There is some trouble with one of the acts, and Vašek is convinced to assist the circus. Mařenka is angry with Jeník for what he has done, and she angrily turns her back on him and agrees to marry Vašek. When both sets of parents meet with Mařenka, the appearance of Jeník at the meeting results in the revelation that Jeník is the long-lost son of Mícha from his first marriage, and that Jeník had been hounded out of house and home by his stepmother, Háta (who is also Vašek’s mother). As a result of this revelation, the terms of the contract between Kecal and Jeník, whereby Jeník gave her up (that Mařenka marry the son of Mícha), allows Mařenka to marry either Jeník or Vašek. Mařenka chooses Jeník, and Kecal is left with the embarrassment of having paid Jeník 300 guilders in order for Jeník to give up the right, to marry Mařenka, to Jeník, himself. At this time, a frightened child rushes in and exclaims that a bear has escaped from the circus. As everybody cowers, the bear wanders in, and pulls off its head, revealing that it was just the immature Vašek disguised in a bear costume for the circus.
[edit] Other Publications
[edit] Tatiana's Table
- A collection of recipes for meals mentioned in The Bronze Horseman, The Bridge To Holy Cross/Tatiana and Alexander, and The Summer Garden, is currently being written by Simons. It will be released in Australia and New Zealand in April 2007.
Paullina says:
"I was looking to make it funny and light and cute, and am still trying to, but of course, my melancholy Russian soul is getting the better of me as I remember what Tatiana and Alexander had, what they lost, what they sacrificed for each other, what it took them to get back to the metaphoric Lazarevo (which in itself was a metaphor), and suddenly I’m feeling slightly less chipper. The blockade of Leningrad in 1941 is presenting particular problems as I write with abundance about cheese and milk and butter and flour and beef tenderloin and preheating ovens and buttering casserole dishes. I keep thinking of Tatiana smelling the empty bag that once contained oatmeal when there was no electricity and no heat, no coal or wood, or water on the third floor. - PaullinaSimons.com
[edit] The Bronze Horseman: Movie?
- A screenplay for The Bronze Horseman, the movie, is currently being written by Simons.
She says:
"The fascination about a possible movie being made out of Bronze Horseman is astonishing. But this is the one book that I cannot and will not entrust to someone else to adapt to the screen, and I myself am flooded with prose work. I hope to have a screenplay finished soon." - PaullinaSimons.com
[edit] Appearances
Author appearances and Book Tours currently scheduled are:
- Melbourne Writer's Festival
- Melbourne, Australia
- August 2007
- New Zealand
- August 2007
[edit] External links
- Paullina Simons' Official Website
- Official Website Forum, where Simons posts updates and information, as well as answering questions from her most dedicated fans.
