In an alternate Russia where the Decembrists succeeded and the Trans-Siberian railroad was finished early, Sasha Trubetskaya yearns for a grand debut ball in St Petersburg. However, due to her aunt's feud with the emperor, she finds herself as one of the first female students at university.
Every city contains secret places. Moscow in the tumultuous 1990s is no different, its citizens seeking safety in a world below the streets -- a dark, cavernous world of magic, weeping trees, and albino jackdaws, where exiled pagan deities and faery-tale creatures whisper strange tales to those who would listen. Galina is a young woman caught, like her contemporaries, in the seeming lawlessness of the new Russia. In the midst of this chaos, her sister Maria turns into a jackdaw and flies away -- prompting Galina to join Yakov, a policeman investigating a rash of recent disappearances. Their search will take them to the underground realm of hidden truths and archetypes, to find themselves caught between reality and myth, past and present, honor and betrayal . . . the secret history of Moscow.
In "Die geheime Geschichte Moskaus" pendelt Galina zur Arbeit, während ihre schwangere Schwester verschwindet. Ein Polizist und ein Straßenmaler erleben mysteriöse Vorkommnisse mit Vögeln, die auf eine geheimnisvolle Spur in den Untergrund Moskaus hinweisen. Ein fesselnder Großstadtroman zwischen Magie und Realität.