"A riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma..."

Everyone knows Churchill's famous quote. But most people don't know the second half of it.

"Perhaps, there is a key..."

From the early years of the American Revolution, when Russian involvement ensured a distracted British empire, to today's obsession with Vladimir Putin, America continues to be fascinated, mystified, even terrified by Russia. However, much of what we think we know is nonsense. (No, there are no polar bears walking in the middle of Moscow).

From the author of the Raven Son epic fantasy series of novels inspired by Russian fairy tales comes a new book exploring some of the strange, mysterious, and edifying stories from Russian history. In these pages, you'll meet French soldiers-turned Cossacks, a real-life Cinderella, and a prince who was killed by his own horse... after it had already died!

But at the heart of all these stories is something universally human: heroism amidst adversity, love in a world of war, brilliant light in the middle of terrible darkness. Stranger than fiction they may be, but perhaps these stories can give you the key to unlock the riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside the enigma of that mystical land that is Russia.