Book Club Selection: Hotel Moscow

 

Ready to dive into a summer read you won’t be able to put down? Our Sutter Home Book Club selection for June, Hotel Moscow by Talia Carner, is brimming with intrigue, shadowy dealings, and political maneuverings. It’s an eye-opening portrait of post-communist Russia and a profound exploration of faith, family, and heritage.

 

Brooke Fielding, a 38-year-old New York investment manager and daughter of Jewish Holocaust survivors, finds her life suddenly upended in late September 1993 when her job is unexpectedly put in jeopardy. Brooke accepts an invitation to join a friend on a mission to Moscow to teach entrepreneurial skills to Russian business women, which will also give her a chance to gain expertise in the new, vast emerging Russian market. Though excited by the opportunity to save her job and be one of the first Americans to visit Russia after the fall of communism, she also wonders what awaits her in the country that persecuted her mother just a generation ago.

 

Inspired by the women she meets, Brooke becomes committed to helping them investigate the crime that threatens their businesses. But as the uprising of the Russian parliament against President Boris Yeltsin turns Moscow into a volatile war zone, Brooke finds that her involvement comes at a high cost. In a city where “capitalism” is still a dirty word, where neighbors spy on neighbors, and the new economy is in the hands of a few dangerous men, nothing Brooke does goes unnoticed — and a mistake in her past may now compromise her future.

 

Read an excerpt from this mesmerizing, thought-provoking novel.

 

Talia Carner is formerly the publisher of Savvy Woman magazine and a lecturer at international women’s economic forums. An award-winning author of four novels and numerous stories, essays, and articles, she is a committed supporter of global human rights. She and her husband have four grown children, and live in New York. Talia’s addictions include chocolate, ballet, hats — and social justice. Visit the author’s site.