St. Petersburg by Jonathan Miles

St. Petersburg by Jonathan Miles

St. Petersburg has always felt like an impossible metropolis, risen from the freezing mists and flooded marshland of the River Neva on the western edge of Russia. It was a new capital in an old country. Established in 1703 by the sheer will of its charismatic founder, the homicidal megalomaniac Peter the Great, its dazzling yet unhinged reputation was quickly cemented by the sadistic dominion of its early rulers. This city, in its successive incarnations--St. Petersburg, Petrograd, Leningrad and, once again, St. Petersburg--has always been a place of perpetual contradiction.

It was a window to Europe and the Enlightenment, but so much of Russia's unique glory was also created here: its literature, music, dance and, for a time, its political vision. It gave birth to the artistic genius of Pushkin and Dostoyevsky, Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich, Pavlova and Nureyev. Yet, for all its glittering palaces, fairytale balls and enchanting gardens, the blood of thousands has been spilt on its snow-filled streets.

It has been a hotbed of war and revolution, a place of siege and starvation, and the crucible for Lenin and Stalin's power-hungry brutality. In St. Petersburg, Jonathan Miles recreates the drama of three hundred years in this paradoxical and brilliant city, bringing us up to the present day, when its fate hangs in the balance once more.

This is an epic tale of murder, massacre and madness played out against squalor and splendor, and an unforgettable portrait of a city and its people.

Dear American Airlines, Want Not, and Anatomy of a Miracle are all written by Jonathan Miles. He is a contributing editor to magazines like Details, Garden & Gun, Men's Magazine, and Field & Stream, and is a former New York Times columnist. Best American Sports Writing and Best American Crime Writing have both published anthologies of his work. He used to live in Oxford, Mississippi, but now resides in rural New Jersey beside the Delaware River.