Simon Sebag Montefiore. (2018). Red Sky at Noon. Pegasus Books.

Simon Sebag Montefiore. 2018. Red Sky At Noon. Pegasus Books.

Simon Sebag Montefiore, Red Sky At Noon. Pegasus Books, 2018.

Simon Sebag Montefiore. Red Sky At Noon. Pegasus Books, 2018.

OverDrive Product Record

sortTitle

Red Sky at Noon

crossRefId

3376013

images

• cover:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-100/0439-1/{02001AB2-FE34-466D-857E-51AB2CCB8BE0}Img100.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg
• thumbnail:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-200/0439-1/{02001AB2-FE34-466D-857E-51AB2CCB8BE0}Img200.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg
• cover150Wide:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-150/0439-1/020/01A/B2/{02001AB2-FE34-466D-857E-51AB2CCB8BE0}Img150.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg
• cover300Wide:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-400/0439-1/020/01A/B2/{02001AB2-FE34-466D-857E-51AB2CCB8BE0}Img400.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg

formats

1. • identifiers:
     1. • type: ISBN
        • value: 9781681776927
   • name: Adobe EPUB eBook
   • id: ebook-epub-adobe
2. • identifiers:
     1. • type: ASIN
        • value: B074D4GXJJ
   • name: Kindle Book
   • id: ebook-kindle
3. • identifiers:
     1. • type: ISBN
        • value: 9781681776927
   • name: OverDrive Read
   • id: ebook-overdrive

mediaType

eBook

primaryCreator

• role: Author
• name: Simon Sebag Montefiore

id

02001ab2-fe34-466d-857e-51ab2ccb8be0

title

Red Sky at Noon

starRating

3.7

dateAdded

2017-12-28T16:06:55.197-05:00

contentDetails

1. • href: https://link.overdrive.com/?websiteID=141&titleID=3376013
   • type: text/html
   • account:
     • name: Sacramento Public Library (CA)
     • id: 1151

OverDrive MetaData

isPublicDomain

False

images

• cover:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-100/0439-1/{02001AB2-FE34-466D-857E-51AB2CCB8BE0}Img100.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg
• thumbnail:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-200/0439-1/{02001AB2-FE34-466D-857E-51AB2CCB8BE0}Img200.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg
• cover150Wide:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-150/0439-1/020/01A/B2/{02001AB2-FE34-466D-857E-51AB2CCB8BE0}Img150.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg
• cover300Wide:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-400/0439-1/020/01A/B2/{02001AB2-FE34-466D-857E-51AB2CCB8BE0}Img400.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg

isPublicPerformanceAllowed

False

formats

1. • fileName: RedSkyatNoon_9781681776927_3376013
   • partCount: 0
   • fileSize: 3950085
   • identifiers:
     1. • type: ISBN
        • value: 9781681776927
   • rights:
     1. • type: Copying
        • value: 0
     2. • type: Printing
        • value: 0
     3. • type: Lending
        • value: 0
     4. • type: ReadAloud
        • value: 0
     5. • type: ExpirationRights
        • value: 0
   • name: Adobe EPUB eBook
   • isReadAlong: False
   • id: ebook-epub-adobe
   • onSaleDate: 1/2/2018
   • samples:
     1. • source: From the book
        • formatType: ebook-overdrive
        • url: https://samples.overdrive.com/?crid=02001ab2-fe34-466d-857e-51ab2ccb8be0&.epub-sample.overdrive.com
2. • fileName: RedSkyatNoon_3376013
   • partCount: 0
   • fileSize: 0
   • identifiers:
     1. • type: ASIN
        • value: B074D4GXJJ
   • name: Kindle Book
   • isReadAlong: False
   • id: ebook-kindle
   • onSaleDate: 1/2/2018
   • samples:
     1. • source: From the book
        • formatType: ebook-overdrive
        • url: https://samples.overdrive.com/?crid=02001ab2-fe34-466d-857e-51ab2ccb8be0&.epub-sample.overdrive.com
3. • fileName: RedSkyatNoon_9781681776927_3376013
   • partCount: 0
   • fileSize: 4874348
   • identifiers:
     1. • type: ISBN
        • value: 9781681776927
   • name: OverDrive Read
   • isReadAlong: False
   • id: ebook-overdrive
   • onSaleDate: 1/2/2018
   • samples:
     1. • source: From the book
        • formatType: ebook-overdrive
        • url: https://samples.overdrive.com/?crid=02001ab2-fe34-466d-857e-51ab2ccb8be0&.epub-sample.overdrive.com

languages

1. • code: en
   • name: English

creators

1. • role: Author
   • fileAs: Sebag Montefiore, Simon
   • bioText: Simon Sebag Montefiore's prize-winning, bestselling novels are published in twenty-seven languages. Red Sky at Noon is the last of the acclaimed Moscow Trilogy, which includes Sashenka and One Night in Winter, which was long-listed for the Orwell Prize. Montefiore's nonfiction books include Jerusalem: The Biography, a #1 Holiday Book Pick on the TODAY show, Young Stalin, winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography, and most recently, The Romanovs, which was a New York Times bestseller. Visit him at www.simonsebagmontefiore.com or on twitter @simonmontefiore.
   • name: Simon Sebag Montefiore

subjects

1. • value: Fiction
2. • value: Literature

publishDate

2018-01-02T00:00:00-05:00

publishDateText

01/02/2018

otherFormatIdentifiers

1. • type: ISBN
   • value: 9781681779072

mediaType

eBook

shortDescription

Imprisoned in the Gulags for a crime he did not commit, Benya Golden joins a penal battalion made up of Cossacks and convicts to fight the Nazis. He enrolls in the Russian cavalry, and on a hot summer day in July 1942, he and his band of brothers are sent on a suicide mission behind enemy lines—but is there a traitor among them? The only thing Benya can truly trust is his horse, Silver Socks, and that he will find no mercy in onslaught of Hitler's troops as they push East.Spanning ten epic days, between Benya's war on the grasslands of southern Russia and Stalin's intrigues in the Kremlin, between Benya's intense affair with an Italian nurse and a romance between Stalin's daughter and a war correspondent, this is a sweeping story of passion, bravery, and survival—where betrayal is a constant companion, death just a heartbeat away, and love, however fleeting, offers a glimmer of redemption.

isOwnedByCollections

True

title

Red Sky at Noon

fullDescription

Imprisoned in the Gulags for a crime he did not commit, Benya Golden joins a penal battalion made up of Cossacks and convicts to fight the Nazis. He enrolls in the Russian cavalry, and on a hot summer day in July 1942, he and his band of brothers are sent on a suicide mission behind enemy lines—but is there a traitor among them? The only thing Benya can truly trust is his horse, Silver Socks, and that he will find no mercy in onslaught of Hitler's troops as they push East.Spanning ten epic days, between Benya's war on the grasslands of southern Russia and Stalin's intrigues in the Kremlin, between Benya's intense affair with an Italian nurse and a romance between Stalin's daughter and a war correspondent, this is a sweeping story of passion, bravery, and survival—where betrayal is a constant companion, death just a heartbeat away, and love, however fleeting, offers a glimmer of redemption.

sortTitle

Red Sky at Noon

crossRefId

3376013

reviews

1. • premium: False
   • source: Publishers Weekly (starred)
   • content: Montefiore's third novel in his Moscow Trilogy (after Sashenka and One Night in Winter) is a stunning World War II story set on the bloody Russian front outside Stalingrad in July 1942. Montefiore's immersive portrayal of the Eastern Front makes this a gripping, convincing tale.
2. • premium: False
   • source: The Daily Telegraph
   • content: A gripping novel. Montefiore is brilliant at depicting brooding menace.   As the penal battalions are given increasingly risky missions, it is Benya's journey on horseback that we follow behind enemy lines in the grasslands of southern Russia.  An epic tale. The language is arresting. It's all beautifully done: a western on the eastern front.
3. • premium: False
   • source: A. D. Miller, author of SNOWDROPS
   • content: I devoured Red Sky at Noon. A heart-stopping, heartbreaking, technicolor epic. A grand homage to the Russian masters Babel & Grossman, echoes of Hemingway & Dostoevsky, and a propulsive delight that is entirely Montefiore's own. Gripping storytelling allied with intimate, unsqueamish knowledge of Russian history—a special combination.
4. • premium: False
   • source: Booklist (starred)
   • content: Historian, biographer, and novelist Montefiore has garnered critical acclaim and commercial success in each discipline, and his latest demonstrates his deftness in crafting a deeply engaging story that is only enriched by his skills as a historian and biographer. Offering historical accuracy, a fine empathy for his characters, and a story that illuminates the operatic tragedy of Stalin's rule, Red Sky at Noon is brilliant on multiple levels.
5. • premium: False
   • source: Sunday Herald (UK), a Best Book of the Year
   • content: For the sheer pleasure of being swept away in an epic tale of love and war by a master storyteller, Red Sky At Noon by Simon Sebag Montefiore had me enthralled from beginning to end. This is the final part of his Moscow trilogy – a series of compelling historical novels in the great tradition of Scott, Thackeray and Tolstoy.
6. • premium: False
   • source: The Mail on Sunday
   • content: Amidst the killing and the chaos, a group of prisoners are offered a chance of redemption on a secret mission behind enemy lines on horseback. Montefiore has a keen sense of place and an eye of unexpected details. Switching between the frontline on the Russian steppes and Stalin in the Kremlin, this is an exciting and fast-paced adventure and a lament for love in dark and brutal times.
7. • premium: False
   • source: Philip Kerr, author of BERLIN NOIR the Bernie Gunther novels
   • content: A wonderful novel. Highly atmospheric. A truly absorbing read. Red Sky at Noon is like Cormac McCarthy—with Nazis and Cossacks.
8. • premium: False
   • source: The Observer (London)
   • content: The gripping final installment of The Moscow Trilogy tells of a man wrongly imprisoned in the Gulags and his fight for redemption. Meticulously researched.  In this searing tale of love and war, most moving is the redemptive relationship between a soldier and a nurse that blooms amid the brutality. An homage to the author's favorite Russian writers and the Western masterpieces of Larry McMurtry, Cormac McCarthy and Elmore Leonard, such influences pervade this atmospheric tale told in the author's distinct own voice.
9. • premium: False
   • source: Washington Missourian
   • content: An important and gripping description of conditions early in World War II in Russia, particularly the extensive use of horse cavalry, of which—I suspect—most of us have been unaware.
10. • premium: False
    • source: The Dayton Daily News
    • content: Montefiore's encyclopedic knowledge of Russian history gives his stories a gripping vibrancy. There's a twist to the end of the story that is by turns satisfying and heartbreaking. In the end, love does win out.
11. • premium: False
    • source: Library Journal
    • content: Montefiore has legions of fans for his histories (The Romanovs), but his 'Moscow Trilogy' (One Night in Winter; Sashenka) opens the floodgates to the imaginative re-creation of archival facts. Benya's story animates a ten-day, desperate struggle in Stalin's huge gamble against the Nazi war machine. World War II fiction aficionados will want to read this.
12. • premium: False
    • source: The Time Literary Supplement
    • content: Montefiore's skill with imagery is such that he immerses the reader in an utterly ethereal landscape, only to snap them into horror as men emerge...
13. • premium: True
    • source:
    • content:

      October 15, 2017
      

      Focusing with romantic verve on the cavalry units deployed in the run-up to the Battle of Stalingrad, Montefiore picks up the story of Benya Golden, a lover of the titular protagonist of Sashenka. Benya was a political prisoner in the Gulag when Stalin's Order 227 created penal battalions whereby prisoners could redeem themselves by fighting for the Motherland. Benya is allowed to join a mounted unit battling on the shores of the Don River. In a febrile medley of Italian and German invaders, Cossack partisans, and Soviet defenders, Benya earns not only the respect of his criminal compatriots but also the love of an Italian nurse. In an intense counterpoint, Stalin's daughter Svetlana Stalina carries on a torrid teenage love affair in Moscow. Montefiore has legions of fans for his histories (The Romanovs), but his "Moscow Trilogy"(One Night in Winter; Sashenka) opens the floodgates to the imaginative re-creation of archival facts. VERDICT Benya's story animates a ten-day, desperate struggle in Stalin's huge gamble against the Nazi war machine. World War II fiction aficionados will want to read this.--Barbara Conaty, Falls Church, VA

      Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

14. • premium: True
    • source:
    • content:

      October 15, 2017
      Montefiore's (The Romanovs, 2016, etc.) World War II novel traces 10 eventful days in the life of Benya Golden, a Russian political prisoner who has joined the fight against the Nazis. It's July 1942, and the Russian army is in disarray: though they are still officially on the Allied side, many soldiers have defected and joined the fight for Hitler. But Russians on both sides, as depicted by Montefiore, are invariably monsters who rape and murder at the slightest provocation. So it makes little sense that Golden, a writer in his 40s who's been a prisoner and a soldier but has never killed anyone, has survived to this point--especially since his regiment of prisoners is deemed expendable by Stalin and sent on a series of suicide missions. The book doesn't really come to life until the middle, when Golden, who has strayed from his regiment and been wounded, falls in love with Fabiana, the Italian nurse who saves his life. Pursued as a Jew by the Nazis and as a defector by the Allies, Golden must choose between losing his love and endangering her life. This gives the book all the romance it needs, but Montefiore also adds a subplot in which Stalin's daughter falls in love with a wartime journalist. These sections underline his point about Stalin's brutality but are sentimentally written and do little to advance the story. A novel this ambitious could use a little more moral nuance, as the characters are either all good or (in most cases) all evil. Yet the gritty war scenes and the lovers' pursuit keep the pages turning.

      COPYRIGHT(2017) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

15. • premium: True
    • source:
    • content:

      Starred review from October 30, 2017
      Montefiore’s third novel in his Moscow Trilogy (after Sashenka and One Night in Winter) is a stunning World War II story set on the bloody Russian front outside Stalingrad in July 1942. Benya Golden is a Jewish writer and political prisoner unjustly convicted of treason and sentenced to 10 years in the gulag. Stalin organizes criminals, convicts, and political prisoners into penal battalions known as Smertniki, the Dead Ones, who are thrown into battle as cannon fodder to be redeemed only by combat death or wounds. Benya is assigned to a penal Cossack cavalry regiment that becomes trapped behind enemy lines after a disastrous frontal assault. Only Benya and six other men survive the attack. They link up with a band of partisans, not knowing they are part of a high-level Russian deception plan involving Stalingrad’s defense. Ambush, capture, escape, interrogation, and execution await the Smertniki, as the Germans and their Axis allies and the Russians slaughter each other. Benya’s brief, intense romance with an Italian nurse gives him hope where he expects only death, but there is one more mission he must complete before his life is redeemed. (Stalin and his daughter Svetlana play a role in this story, too.) Montefiore’s immersive portrayal of the Eastern Front makes this a gripping, convincing tale.

16. • premium: True
    • source:
    • content:

      Starred review from November 1, 2017
      Historian, biographer, and novelist Montefiore has garnered critical acclaim and commercial success (The Romanovs, 2016) in each discipline, and his latest demonstrates his deftness in crafting a deeply engaging story that is only enriched by his skills. Set in a 10-day period in the summer of 1942, the narrative finds Joseph Stalin facing the collapse of Russian forces before a massive Wehrmacht assault aimed at Stalingrad and the oil fields of the Caucasus. Stalin's response was the formation of penal battalions of mounted cavalry drawn from prisoners in the country's vast Gulag. To humanize a campaign involving millions of combatants, Montefiore gives readers Benya Golden, a 42-year-old Jewish writer expecting to die in Kolyma, the most barbaric of Gulag prisons. Benya's first action is a nearly suicidal attack behind enemy lines, and Montefiore's portrayal of the chaos of hooves, swords, and gunfire is visceral. Wounded and captured, Benya is treated by an Italian nurse, which leads to an affair that the lovers must measure in hours. As he did in his landmark biography Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar (2004), Montefiore portrays the Soviet leader as being less paranoid and more human when surrounded by his advisors. He also inserts Stalin's daughter, Svetlana, into the story, showing the pretty, sensitive 16-year-old to be lovelorn because boys are terrified to approach her. Offering historical accuracy, a fine empathy for his characters, and a story that illuminates the operatic tragedy of Stalin's rule, Red Sky at Noon is brilliant on multiple levels.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

popularity

473

publisher

Pegasus Books

links

• self:
  • href: https://api.overdrive.com/v1/collections/v1L1BWwAAAA2I/products/02001ab2-fe34-466d-857e-51ab2ccb8be0/metadata
  • type: application/vnd.overdrive.api+json

id

02001ab2-fe34-466d-857e-51ab2ccb8be0

starRating

4

bisacCodes

1. • code: FIC000000
   • description: Fiction / General
2. • code: FIC008000
   • description: Fiction / Sagas
3. • code: FIC019000
   • description: Fiction / Literary