Zoya [Mass Market Paperback]

Danielle Steel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 4, 1989

Against the backdrop of the Russian Revolution  and World War I Europe, Zoya, young cousin to  the Tsar, flees St. Petersburg to Paris to find safety. Her entire  world forever changed, she faces hard times and joins the   Ballet Russe in Paris. And then, when life is kind to her,  Zoya moves on to a new and glittering life in New York. The  days of ease are all too brief as the Depression strikes, and  she loses everything yet again. It is her career, and the man she  meets in the course of it, which ultimately save her, as she  rebuilds her life through the war years and beyond. And it is  her family that comes to mean everything to her. From the roaring twenties to  the 1980's, Zoya remains a rare and spirited  woman whose legacy will live on.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With the emotional panache that pleases her devotees, Steel (Kaleidoscope) portrays Zoya Ossupov, a courageous young woman of Imperial Russia who experiences both ecstasy and trauma. Daughter of a count who is a cousin of Tsar Nicholas, Zoya enjoys a privileged, cloistered existence. Zoya, whose name means "life," is on intimate terms with the tsar's family. All of them, of course, are endangered by the Revolution. The insurgents slaughter the tsar and his kin, and cause the deaths of Zoya's parents and brother, forcing her to flee to Paris with her aged but indomitable grandmother. Suffering in unaccustomed poverty, they are sustained by Zoya's wages as a dancer with the Ballet Russe. Romance brightens her life following a chance encounter with an affluent New Yorker, Capt. Clayton Andrews. Enchanted by Zoya, Andrews eventually brings her to Manhattan as his bride, never imagining the tragedies that will befall them both. Steel evokes the final days of Imperial Russia with characteristic bravura. As always, she offers a carefully calculated mix of picturesque locales, remarkable events and appealing characters. Literary Guild and BOMC dual main selections.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

$19.95. f Most of Steel's readers have favorites among her stories and while this one may not be destined to be the choice of many, libraries will have difficulty keeping it in stock because of Steel's reputation. Within weeks of her last visit to the family of her distant cousin Tsar Nicholas II, Zoya and her grandmother flee the Russian Revolution in 1917, taking with them two final royal gifts, a small dog and the measles. The harsh winter in Paris before Zoya meets the handsome American captain she marries is difficult. She loses all but her two children in the stock market crash, but finds work as a fashion coordinator. Throughout, history and romance often seem to bump into each other as they stumble over coincidence. This is not one of Steel's better sagas, and her fans will be disappointed. Literary Guild Dual Main Selection.Andrea Lee Shuey, Dallas P.L.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: Dell (June 4, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0440203856
• ISBN-13: 978-0440203858
• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 1.3 x 6.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #877,849 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #65 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Romance > Authors, A-Z > ( S ) > Steel, Danielle

More About the Author

Danielle Steel has been hailed as one of the world's most popular authors, with over 590 million copies of her novels sold. Her many international bestsellers include 44 Charles Street, Legacy, Family Ties, Big Girl, Southern Lights, Matters of the Heart, One Day at a Time, and other highly acclaimed novels. She is also the author of His Bright Light, the story of her son Nick Traina's life and death.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful entertaining journey, June 27, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Chicago, Illinois) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Zoya (Mass Market Paperback)

I hate to admit it, but I like Danielle Steel. Sure, we can criticize her prose which can be downright silly but no one can argue the fact that she is a professional when it comes to story-telling. Her novels read like epic screenplays and readers are taken to worlds far away with stories about characters which are moving and keep the pages turning. I have read only 5 of Ms. Steel's novels but "Zoya," to date, is the best. "Zoya" is the story of a Russian girl who flees her Russian homeland with her grandmother during the revoloution. She goes to Paris where her dreams of being a dancer are fulfilled and romance enters her life. The novel moves from Paris to New York where we are allowed to watch Zoya for 80 years. Ms. Steel brings to life all the feelings of Russia and romance eventhough, as we said, they may not be articulated well. This reader felt all the tears, laughter and joy Zoya experienced throughout her lifetime. Novels can either teach or entertain - so what if there is no lesson to be learned from the novels Danielle Steel writes? I can't think of too many people who can come up with stories like she can - so hats off to Ms. Steel!

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Zoya, November 26, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Zoya (Mass Market Paperback)

I must say that this is an intriguing book to read, thoroughly enjoyable, and very earnest in the feelings it conveys. However, as a Romanov afficionado I fundamentally oppose putting words into the mouths of the Tsar's family. Also, some glaring mistakes were made in their descriptions:

First, Joy was NOT Maria's (Mashka's) dog, nor was it a female! HE was a liver spaniel and belonged to Tsarevich Aleksei, Marie's younger brother. The reason I know he couldn't be a girl is, first, accounts of those who knew him and the family, and, second, the fact that "JOY" in Russian sounds positively like a male name.

Marie herself had a pet mouse, her sisters Anastasia had a Cavalier King Charles spaniel named Jemmy (though some say he originally belonged to Tatiana), Tatiana had a French bulldog named Ortino (who was a girl), and Olga had a cat named Vaska.

Also, somehow it seems improbable that a COUNTESS, which is rather low a title in Russia (Grand Duke and Prince come above it!) could be a cousin to the Tsar.

No blood was shed in the days of the Revolution, nor in the Bolshevik coup d'etat; the book says that "hundreds of people were dead by the end of the day."

Finally, the book depicts the Revolution as happening in a snap, and immediately Bolshevik. That is very, very wrong indeed. All of 1917 and part of 1916 endured strikes and random violence in Petrograd. Plus, after the Revolution came a summer of non-Bolshevik rule, though they were, of course, very powerful already...

However, the book was very good outside of that. Though again, another comment, most White emigres tended to keep up the Russian language and culture in their children, while Zoya doesn't do this... She could, of course, be called an exception, but somehow the fact that her children don't speak Russian sounds weird.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A book rich in words and character., January 18, 2000

By 

kimber84 - See all my reviews

This review is from: Zoya (Mass Market Paperback)

When I picked up this novel I had no idea how much it would change my life. It puts you right in the middle of the Russian Revolution where you meet Zoya, the cousin of the doomed Romanovs. She is forced to flee to France with her grandmother and start over as a poor woman. In this book the emotions flow thick with the gentle but rich and heavy words. When I read this beautiful book it was like a dam was breaking free and flooding my mind with so many beautiful images and pictures. When I put the book I thanked the world and God for such a wonderful and moving novel. I highly recommend this book.