A sweeping story of mothers and daughters, of war and sacrifice and heart-ache set against a grand canvas of post-revolutionary Russia through early communist China and the South Seas to contemporary Australia. Big, passionate stuff.
Beginning in a small village on the Chinese–Russian border in the final days of World War II, this novel tells the story of a mother and daughter separated by war. In a district of the city of Harbin, a haven for White Russian families since Russia's Communist revolution, Alina Kozlova must make a heartbreaking decision if her only child, Anya, is to live.
‘White Gardenia’ sweeps across cultures and continents, from the glamorous, decadent Shanghai to the harshness of Cold War Soviet Russia in the 1960s, from a desolate island in the Pacific Ocean to a new life in post-war Australia. Both mother and daughter must make sacrifices, but is the price of survival too high? And will they ever find each other again?
‘A passionate and powerful family saga.’ Australian Women’s Weekly
‘Depicts vividly the powerful, lifelong bond between mothers and daughters.’ Paullina Simons
Author
About Belinda Alexandra
Belinda Alexandra is the daughter of a Russian mother and an Australian father, and has lived in New York, California and Melbourne. She has a Masters degree in Creative Writing and a BA in Asain Studies. She currently lives in Sydney and enjoys ballroom dancing and studying French. She is also a volunteer rescuer witht he NSW Wildlife Information and Rescue Services. Belinda met her husband while learning the tango, which was part of the research for WILD LAVENDER.
