Daughters of the Black Sea

An Unforgettable Wartime Story of a Forbidden Friendship, a Stolen Letter, and the Promise That Outlived a WarBy Dorothea O. Coleridge

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Length6h 58m

About this audiobook

A crowded quay. Two sisters. One ship. Only one of them makes it aboard. Odessa, 1919. The White Army is collapsing. The Bolsheviks are coming. In the crush of desperate refugees and burning warehouses, their father makes a choice: Anya, the elder, the practical one, will sail for Constantinople. Katya, the dreamer, will stay behind with their dying mother. On the gangplank, with seconds left, Anya presses a stolen letter into Katya's hand. A letter their father never meant anyone to find. A letter that holds a secret capable of destroying the family's honor — or saving them both. "I will find you," Anya whispers. "No matter what." Then the ship sails. And the world splits in two. In Constantinople, Anya is a refugee in a city choked with exiles. She sews in a squalid tenement. She moves through the treacherous politics of the White émigré community, chasing every rumor, every coded message that might lead her back to Katya. And she falls, helplessly, for an American journalist who offers her a door out — if she is willing to stop looking. In Odessa, Katya endures the Red Terror. Famine. The slow erasure of everything she knew. She hides the stolen letter in the lining of her coat and reads it by candlelight, using its secrets to bargain for survival. But the Cheka is hunting for exactly that kind of secret. The letter is her lifeline. It is also a death warrant. Both sisters face the same impossible question: forget the past and live, or honor the promise and risk everything. Across four years and two crumbling worlds, Anya and Katya Volkova must decide how much a promise is worth — and whether love across an ocean of silence can survive the weight of all they cannot say. Daughters of the Black Sea is a sweeping and richly researched historical novel about sisters separated by revolution, the secrets that bind and endanger, forbidden friendship across class lines, and the fierce, fragile power of a promise that refuses to die. Perfect for readers who love dual-timeline wartime fiction, sisters separated by war, richly researched historical settings, and the emotional depth of Kristin Hannah and Kate Quinn. A sweeping standalone historical novel.

Survival Family Journey Historical Romance Thriller Political Intrigue Enemies to Lovers Post-Apocalyptic Coming of Age