The Cruel Romance: A Novel of Love and War, by Marina Osipova, is an excellently written story that draws the reader through every page of this bitter love story, set in World War II and post-war Russia. It is the dramatic and realistic rendering of one young girl's journey, through German occupation, to post-war trauma and the fight to find relevance and happiness in life again. This is a haunting tale, beautifully scripted and laced with wonderfully composed metaphors and descriptive passages that turn an otherwise dark and heinous period of human history, into something that is palatable and at times, even simplistically beautiful. It is an historical fiction, and certainly, provides an insight into what life was like in Russia during the German invasion, and the Stalinistic society that evolved in the aftermath of the war. A gripping, somewhat tragic, and yet, mesmerizing tale of love and war.
Review by International Writers Inspiring Change
About Marina Osipova
Marina Osipova was born in East Germany into a military family and grew up in Russia where she graduated from the Moscow State Institute of History and Archives. She also has a diploma as a German language translator from the Moscow State Institute of Foreign Languages. In Russia, she worked first in a scientific-technical institute as a translator then in a Government Ministry in the office of international relations, later for some Austrian firms. For seventeen years, she lived in the United States where she worked in a law firm. Eventually, she found her home in Austria. She is an award-winning author and a member of the Historical Novel Society.
