City of Night Birds

A once-famous ballerina faces a final choice--to return to the world of Russian dance that nearly broke her, or to walk away forever--in this incandescent novel of redemption and love On a White Night in 2019, prima ballerina Natalia Leonova returns to St. Petersburg two years after a devastating accident stalled her career. Once the most celebrated dancer of her generation, she now turns to pills and alcohol to numb the pain of her past. She is unmoored in her old city as the ghosts of her former life begin to resurface: her loving but difficult mother, her absentee father, and the two gifted dancers who led to her downfall. One of those dancers, Alexander, is the love of her life, who transformed both Natalia and her art. The other is Dmitri, a dark and treacherous genius. When the latter offers her a chance to return to the stage in her signature role, Natalia must decide whether she can again face the people responsible for both her soaring highs and darkest hours. Painting a vivid portrait of the Russian ballet world, where cutthroat ambition, ever-shifting politics, and sublime artistry collide, City of Night Birds unveils the making of a dancer with both profound intimacy and breathtaking scope. Mysterious and alluring, passionate and virtuosic, Juhea Kim''s second novel is an affecting meditation on love, forgiveness, and the making of an artist in a turbulent world.

About the author

Juhea Kim is the author of the novel Beasts of a Little Land, which was a finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and the winner of the Yasnaya Polyana Literary Award, Russia’s largest annual award in literature. It has been translated around the world and is being adapted for television. She is also the author of City of Night Birds, which was a Reese’s Book Club pick. A graduate of Princeton University, her writing has been published in Granta, the Times Literary Supplement, the Independent, Zyzzyva, Guernica<, and other outlets. She is an advocate for wildlife conservation, animal rights, and education and aid in Africa. Born in Korea and raised in Portland, Oregon, Kim now lives in London.

Product details

• Authors: Juhea Kim
• Publisher: Ecco Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 30.10.2024
• EAN: 9780063440982
• ISBN: 978-0-06-344098-2
• No. of pages: 320
• Dimensions: 152 mm x 229 mm x 20 mm
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature; Narrative theme: Interior life, Family life fiction, Narrative theme: Coming of age, Narrative theme: Sense of place, FICTION: Literary, FICTION: Family Life / General, FICTION: Romance / Contemporary, FICTION: Coming of Age, FICTION: Small Town & Rural *, LITERATURE: GENERAL FICTION, FICTION: Cultural Heritage, FICTION: Psychological, FICTION: City Life, FICTION: World Literature / Russia / 21st Century, Modern and contemporary fiction: general and literary, Modern and Contemporary romance, FICTION: Performing Arts / Dance, Theater & Musicals, FICTION: Disability, Literature / General Fiction