They were idealistic young people who volunteered to move north of the Arctic Circle to mine copper, for the country, for the people, believing themselves “the true builders of Communism.” Yuri, and his wife Katerina who left behind a career with the Bolshoi Ballet, their friends Irina and Vitka the poet.

Vitka was denounced and rehabilitated. Katherina disappeared. Yuri’s health was breaking down from exposure to chemicals at his job. Their daughter Anya had her mother’s grace, drive, and facility and is chosen to study gymnastics, to train for the Olympics.

Yuri believed in the Communist dream of equality, the importance of his work. But all around them were people who had survived their internment in the camps and stayed on. They had been imprisoned by Stalin for owning too many cattle and horses, for being landowners, for “murky political charges,” for writing poetry that “promoted the cult of the individual” of which Vitka was accused. Anya’s neighbor Vera was one of these survivors, her husband and son starved or murdered in the camps. She remains for them, and out of the guilt of what it took to survive. Vera told her story to Katerina, causing her questioning of the political system she had believed in. The forbidden poetry of Marina Tsvetaeva also set in motion Katerina’s questioning. Why was there no room for art and love in Communism?

Anya saw gymnastics as her way out of Norilag. She loved the challenge. It was an honor to be chosen to train for the Olympics, to bring glory to one’s country. Her role model was Olga Korbut. Anya’s life would be controlled by her trainer until she was eighteen, when she moved on to a state job,

The story of Anya’s training is brutal, for the girl has no value unless she can do the impossible, and win. When she is hurt, she is given injections and forced to continue training before she heals. The coaches are tyrants, determining how long the girls train, what they eat. what they will do. Anya is stubborn. She does the impossible. She is on her way to the Olympics. She meets an older gymnast, Elena, and they develop a deep love. Anya finds her mother’s forbidden copies of poems and shares them with Elena. After an injury, Elena is pushed too far and a failure results in tragedy.

Anya’s story is an emotional read. Vera and Yuri and Katerina’s stories give depth and insight into Soviet history. Theirs is a story of Idealism meeting cruel reality, patriotism questioned, learning one’s country does not care about the individual, learning how evil flourished.

Meadows manages to describe the world and training of gymnastics in a way that holds the reader’s interest, drawing from her own love of 1970s Soviet Olympic contenders in gymnastics and her own experience and training.

At it’s root, the character’s suffering stems from the state. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Anya and Yuri, poisoned by copper, immigrated to America, living with other homesick Russians in Brooklyn, sharing a nostalgia for what no longer existed, and perhaps never did.

We knew a Russian exchange student who was in America while during the collapse. Yuri had high hopes for the future, believing that his country could reinvent itself. He was excited to return home. I often wonder what happened when he returned to a country in disarray.

Patriotism can drive one to do illogical things. Katerina once danced for Stalin, but follows Yuri into a brutal wilderness. Yuri’s health is ruined without protection against the copper. The gymnasts’ mental and physical well being are ignored in the quest for Olympic glory to prove the state’s superiority. They try to ignore the legacy of the camps.

It’s a warning to us all.

I received a free egalley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

A really great book. I am a huge gymnastics fan, and I really enjoyed this glimpse into USSR gymnastics culture.

Loved it!!! I can't stop thinking about this book. I was hooked from the very start until the last page. Everything about it was interesting. I didn't know much about the Russian gymnastics program, so this story was extremely eye opening. The girls were recruited so young for either gymnastics or dance. The USSR just seemed like such a horrible place to live. People were sent to labor camps for any reason. Norilsk was a dreadful place to live between the weather, pollution, copper poisoning from working in the plant and did I mention the weather. Loved the relationship Anya and Vera had together. Vera's story was incredibly sad. She went through so much but was able to survive. I couldn't wait to find out what happened to Katerina. Was she dead, alive in some scary labor camp, did she make it out of Russia? There were so many scenarios that could have happened. When her fate was finally revealed, I was actually shocked because I wasn't expecting that outcome. It's Russia, anything can happen when you don't conform. I would never have imagined an actual polar bear in an apartment. I never realized that Elena was based off of a real gymnast. That makes her story and more scary. The gymnasts were forced to continue training, with broken bones and perform dangerous routines. They even removed the casts before the bones were healed. I loved everything about this book, most of all Anya.

Definitely recommend the book. Loved the story, characters and writing style. I was sad to see the book end and loved reading about Anya. Look forward to reading more books by the author.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Henry Holt & Company, through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Winterland is a rich, emotional narrative, focusing on the world of gymnastics in the 1970s post-Stalin era of the USSR. The story follows Anya, an 8-year old girl from the Siberian city Norilsk, who was chosen to go to a special sports school to train as a gymnast with the ultimate goal of representing her country in national/world competitions with an eye on the Olympics in Moscow. Through watch Anya’s tale unfold and getting to know her friends and family - particularly her hardworking father Yuri, who finds himself struggling with the disillusionment of the Soviet Union at the same time as learning how to cope after the disappearance of his wife and Anya’s mother, and Anya’s strong neighbor Vera, a survivor of the forced labor camps with a heart of gold - we witness firsthand all of the struggles of all types that the Russian people faced in those troubled times.

It is absolutely a story about gymnastics, and was super nostalgic for me as a former gymnast myself. Although I certainly wasn’t going to the Olympics, I was still completely consumed by the world of gymnastics growing up, going to practice ~15 hours a week after school and traveling all over the regional area for competitions - so I really connected with the descriptions of the gym environment, the commentary from the coaches, the skills themselves and the anxiety around attempts at new ones, and just the feeling that gymnastics and your life are one in the same. I thought the author was very successful in handling all of the discussion about gymnastics, particularly the various skills, describing them and their levels of difficulty in a way that was completely accurate but would also be easy for any reader to understand regardless of their familiarity with the sport.

I really enjoyed how the author so successfully used the gymnastics storyline to illustrate the culture of the USSR in the late 1970s and the overall importance of the sport of gymnastics to the Russian people that led to an incredible amount of pressure on the athletes to perform for their country. I learned so much about Russian history throughout the pages, and I felt a great sense of place, particularly in the descriptions of Siberia.

While gymnastics is most definitely at the core of this story, the characters in this very character-driven novel are what really made it for me. My heart wept for all of them in different ways and for different reasons. There were a lot of emotions and hardships in the pages, and it was not an easy read by any means, but at the same time I kept finding myself drawn back to the story to see what happened next and still wasn’t quite ready to leave Anya at the end.

Overall, I really enjoyed this read! I’m not sure if it would necessarily be something for every reader, but the super character-driven storyline with a heavy focus on gymnastics absolutely worked for me. Thank you so much to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Winterland
by Rae Meadows
Pub Date: November 29, 2022
Henry Holt
Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the ARC of this book.
Reminiscent of Maggie Shipstead’s Astonish Me and Julia Phillips’s Disappearing Earth, Winterland tells the story of a previous era, shockingly pertinent today, shaped by glory and loss and finding light where none exists.
Beautiful, well-written book. Although it could be a bit depressing.
I Will Send Rain” by Rae Meadow was the last book I have read by this author. Set in 1930s Oklahoma, during the dustbowls. It showcased her knack for historical fiction. Her latest historical novel, “Winterland,” is equally powerful. This time we get a look at 1970s Soviet gymnastics and its brutal culture as the athletes prepare for the Olympics. Meadows succeeds once again in restoring the urgency of a distant time and place.
5 stars

Beautifully told story of a young gymnast tapped to be groomed for Soviet gymnastics glory. Rae Meadows does an amazing job of evoking the misery of life in Russia in the 1970s, particularly in the cold, bleak, dirty nickel mining town of Norilsk in the far north. The story of young Anya and her determination and sacrifices to become an Olympic gymnast and bring glory to the Soviet Union alternates with the story of an elderly neighbor who spent years in the Soviet gulag, where she lost her husband and son, and the mysterious disappearance of Anya's memoir. The story is well researched and well told, but given the subject matter is relentlessly brutal and depressing. An admirable more than an enjoyable read.

*Publish Date - 11/29/2022. Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt and Co. for the advanced e-copy of this book.

Rae Meadows rolled back the Iron Curtain to give us a peak into the world of gymnastics in the 1970s/post Stalin era Soviet Union. Anya's parents, Yuri and Katerina, moved to Siberia as part of a young Communist movement (True Believers) to work for the party. Katerina becomes increasingly disenchanted with the Communist Party as she visits with her neighbor, Vera, who is a survivor of a Gulag concentration camp. One day (Anya is around 5), Katerina leaves work for a meeting and is never seen again. Fast forward 3 years, the search is on for the next gymnastic super star to replace an aging Olga Korbut and to defeat the rising Romain, Nadia Comaneci (two stars that I loved watching compete!), Anya is discovered during an event at her school and is chosen to enter the system with hopes of making the Olympic team. Both she and her father are thrilled as this is both an honor and an economic boost for their very meager existence. Anya learns that anything less than perfection is unacceptable and endures suffering, injury, and abuse while pursuing her goal of excellence. The hardships are always tempered with hope, and there is an effort to seek the good.

I highly recommend this book!

This was a five star tale for me. I can usually talk about books to my family and friends but with this one, I’m finding it impossible to put into words how this novel moved me.

The story here captured my attention from the get go - it unfolded seamlessly and without flaw.

It wasn’t an easy read - there is so much pain in these pages, but it kept pulling at me and I read it over the span of 5 days.

Winterland is one that I have thought about often after finishing it and I have a feeling I’ll be considering it for some time to come. I absolutely recommend this.

This fascinating historical fiction is about Anya, a young girl in a Siberian mining town who is chosen at age 8 to train to become part of the elite Soviet Union gymnastics team. As someone who grew up watching Olympic gymnastics starting with Nadia Comaneci and all the Romanian, Russian and American gymnasts who followed, getting an inside look at the rigors, deprivations and trauma endured by these athletes was eye-opening. I was also interested in the more generalized depiction of life in the Soviet Union in the 70s onward and the tarnished idealism so many citizens clung to, including Anya's father. Bleak but engrossing.

Winterland by Rae Meadows tells the story of Anya, a promising gymnast in Soviet Russia. She's also a motherless girl in Siberia, with a father who is struggling to cope with the loss of his wife and his disillusionment with the Soviet world, and a beloved older neighbor, Vera, who tries her best to counter Anya's abusive gymnastics environment with love and encouragement even while she battles her old demons and haunting memories.

This book is beautiful and elegiac and, as an enthusiastic gymnastics fan, I thought it did an incredible job of capturing the experience of training gymnastics, the thrill of competition, and the beauty and pain of the pinnacle of Soviet gymnastics. It's a must-read for gymnastics fans, who will find its final third particularly heartbreaking as they figure out sooner than anybody what's coming for these characters.

I did encounter a few issues with pacing and the places where Maedows decided to do time jumps, and I didn't think that Yuri, Vera, and Katerina's stories were nearly as compelling as Anya's. Katerina's story, particularly, ends up feeling underdeveloped and a bit predictable. If anything, Winterland would benefit from an additional 50 pages or so to really build out these three stories.

Overall, though, this is a really lovely, sad, and unflinching story about the 70s era Soviet Union, the cost of glory, and one girl's experience in the most successful gymnastics program in history. I definitely recommend it.

Thank you to Henry Holt and NetGalley for an advance review copy of Winterland. All opinions are my own.

This book is interesting as it is set in 1973 in the USSR, following young girls as they prepare, test, and become a part of the USSR gymnastics program. The story focuses on Anya who is chosen at the young age of 8, and essentially leaves schooling behind and starts to face the intense pressures of the gymnastics program in that country - including physical demands and expectations for representing the country. A secondary storyline focuses on Vera, an older woman who was Anya's neighbor when she was growing up. Vera live in an encampment in her younger years and is haunted by memories of that. She was also close to Anya's mother before she disappeared when Anya was very young.

***Thanks to NetGalley for providing me a complimentary copy of WINTERLAND by Rae Meadows in exchange for my honest review.***

In 1973, at age eight, Anya is selected for a special sports school in the USSR, hoping she’ll one day do her country honor as an Olympic gymnast. Abandoned by her ballerina mother three years earlier and raised by her hard-working father, Anya’s gymnastics also brings badly needed funds to her struggling family.

Told from the years 1973, 1977 and 1998 Anya’s rise and fall, the friendships longed for, made and lost and and her family’s struggles are recounted in Rae Meadows’s latest historical fiction.

The world needs more gymnastics books. I’m old enough to remember Anya’s idol, Olga Korbut competing at the Olympics though I only remembered Nellie Kim and Nadia among the other gymnasts fictionalized for WINTERLAND. I remember the stronghold the Soviet Union had on gymnastics. I remember hearing athletes speak the words, “I defect” and the excitement of knowing someone chose freedom, at great risk to his or her life. Until reading WINTERLAND, I never realized families of such athletes could be penalized.

I liked WINTERLAND because I’m a gymnastics fan, but found the story slow and depressing. To be fair, historical fiction isn’t usually my genre, but I’ll read anything related to gymnastics.

Winterland is a very moving and detailed story of a young 8 year old girl who is chosen for the Russian Olympic Gymnastic Team in the1970’s. Her climb to the upper ranks of the competition are brutal. The supporting characters filled with scars from their lives in the Soviet Union but also share great love and support for young Anya. Her being chosen to compete is seen as her way of survival. This is a timely book due to the Ukraine War.

Meadows writing is clean and tight. The characters are well drawn and the cruel atmosphere of the book’s environment stay with you long after you finish reading. The author has built in many layers making the story multifaceted, a great book for discussion.

Received from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this story of a Russian gymnast. It definitely transported me to a different place and time, and made my heart hurt for so many of the characters. I knocked off one star because it ends rather abruptly, but it’s still one of the best books I’ve read this year.

This is an incredible book. It deserves 5 Stars.

Anya lives in Norilsk, Siberia with her father, Yuri. Anya is a talented gymnast and it is a great honor to be selected to train for the Soviet Union Team. Anya is just 8. She has not seen her mother, Katerina for 3 years. It is assumed she may be dead, but no one is certain. The story takes place starting in 1973, and continues for several years. This is a time I remember so well, with Romanian, Gymnast, Nadia Comaneci competing against the Soviet members. My young friends, Angela, Gina, and myself watched this every night. We all decided we wanted to be Olympic Gymnasts.

So, the gymnastics is a big part of the book, but It is also a wonderful and rich character study of Anya, Yuri, Katerina, and also their neighbor, Vera. Stalin has left and now is supposed to be a new ERA for the Communist Party. Yuri and Katerina leave for Norilsk, to be true believers, the common good is more important then the individual. Katerina starts to miss her dancing and being her own self and talks to Vera often. Vera was in Norilsk, along with her husband and young child for many years. Vera’s husband worked at the University and was completely innocent. Their was not even a trial, yet they are starving, in the Gulag, with horrendous conditions, and must work long days while emaciated. She certainly lived a different life amount the Soviets. Katerina starts to share her dreams and question the Soviet ideals. Shortly, after she goes missing.

Yuri knows of other friends who meet this same fate, but he is still holding on to The Motherland, great Russia is good, even when unfortunate events sometimes occur that he thinks are wrong.

So, I learned so much about the thinking of the Soviet people. This is not a fast paced sports story. It is much more about those within the country who live and believe in different ways. It is a story with a lot to say. I l loved the story.

Thank you, NetGalley, Rae Meadows, and Henry, Holt and Company for a copy of this book. I am always happy to leave my own review.

#Winterland #NetGalley

Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Pub. Date: Nov. 29, 2022

“I Will Send Rain" by Rae Meadows captivated me. Set in 1930s Oklahoma, during the dustbowls. It showcased her knack for historical fiction. Her latest historical novel, “Winterland,” is equally powerful. This time we get a brutal look at 1970s Soviet gymnastics, culture as the athletes prepare for the Olympics. Meadows succeeds once again in restoring the urgency of a distant time and place.

In 1954, a year after the death of Stalin, a man named Yuri meets his future wife, Katerina, on the streets of Moscow. Young and ambitious, they both hope to leave their mark on modernizing the USSR. Along with their friends, they join the Communist League of Youth. From there they are sent to Norilsk, North Siberia, to mine copper. Their youthful optimism is relatable, even to an American reader. As their friends succumb to frostbite, scurvy, and starvation, they return to Moscow. Yuri and Katerina remain in Siberia, refusing to surrender their ideals. Their daughter, Anya, becomes the focus of the story.
Anya grows up in Norilsk, where we now experience the frigid Siberian landscape through a child’s eyes. Her youth is defined by the mysterious disappearance of her mother when she is six years old. Vera, an older woman who lives next door, becomes her only confidant. It is through Vera's stories that we glimpse the most heart-wrenching details of life in the forced labor Gulag camps, where enemies of the party were sent throughout Stalin’s reign. These well-written, hard-to-read scenes are eerily reminiscent of the German concentration camps with which readers are likely more familiar.

There is plenty of Russian history in this book but its heart and soul is Anya’s life as an athlete. In 1973, at the age of nine, Anya is selected to train as a gymnast. Her childhood as she knew it was over. We watch her rise to the top of an ultra-competitive sport, always under the thumb of her abusive trainers. The author will make you cringe as Anya’s friends and teammates are worked into states of disfigurement. The trainers have no sympathy for them; it is all about money and Russian glory. When Anya’s career is over, she is forced to teach gymnastics back in Norilsk. Not much of a thank you. Following the fall of the Soviet Union, Yuri migrates to the US, as many Russians did at the time. Despite his hardships, he keeps his communist party card; the dreams of one’s youth are powerful things.

Every section of Meadows’ novel is heartbreaking in this way. From the dashed dreams of an idealist’s youth, to the terror of achieving athletic excellence in a deeply corrupt system, everything is infused with its rightful poignancy. The many broader lessons of Russian history and politics conveyed throughout the novel do nothing to lessen its intimacy. “Winterland” is also sprinkled with Russian poetry, a touch that felt earned. I thought of the line from the novel “Dr. Zhivago”: “But if people love poetry, they love poets. And nobody loves poetry like a Russian.” My only criticism is that I was expecting to learn more about the disappearance of Anya’s mother. But then again, many Russians have disappeared without answers. The novel is unflinching in this way. I highly recommend it.

I received this Advance Review Copy (ARC) novel from the publisher at no cost in exchange for an honest review.

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As a young girl, I LOVED the Olympics and always dreamed of being an elite gymnast. So that story line drew me in immediately. I found the setting intriguing and appreciated the little bit of insight into life as a communist. I found myself longing for more resolution at the end, in particular with Anya's mother. Overall, this was a welcome change of pace for me and I enjoyed the read.

I'm a big fan of historical fiction set in Russia. I also love stories about gymnastics. A historical fiction novel about the Soviet gymnastics regime of the 1970s? Sign me up!

Not only is this a powerful look at the stressful and abusive culture of Soviet gymnastics, it is also a haunting story of the horrors of Stalinism coming to light in 1970s USSR.

Rae Meadows is clearly very knowledgeable about the stars of 1970s gymnastics, gymnastics training, and the elements of gymnastics, which adds much depth and flavor.

Many thanks to Henry Holt & Company and NetGalley for a digital review copy in exchange for an honest review.

What an extraordinary book! This is an emotional and fantastically written novel.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the digital ARC in exchange for my honest review. All opinions expressed are completely my own.

I thought this was an extraordinary book, well worth reading. It is also timely due to the current Ukraine crisis, giving us deeper understanding of the Russian spirit and mindset. The characters are largely women which shows the unique female struggle playing out in the field of gymnastics as well as in women’s right. I found growth, youthful discovery, and freedom to be emphasized and understood well. In addition, this book explores the story of friendship among women, the young women Anya and Elena in the gymnastics world; and across generations supporting each other and tender demonstration of the power and desire of freedom.

Even today it is a great honor for a young girl than to be chosen to be part of the USSR gymnastics program. Three generations of women face the struggle of life in the USSR—the young gymnasts, the mother who escapes her stifling life, and the elder woman who has survived 10 years in a Gulag camp. Each has had to do unspeakable things to survive. The emotional attachment of Anya with another gymnast, Elena, is highlighted as a friendship, perhaps more, but as a relationship between women that shapes both their lives. Perhaps the medals are not as important as the relationships formed.

This is an enticing book, providing insight into women of all ages, life in less free countries and the ways we all survive the life we are lucky to have.

Thanks to Henry Holt & Company and to Netgalley for providing a copy of this book.