The Summer Garden

The Summer Garden
Paullina Simons

A novel tracing the enduring power of love and commitment against the forces of war and the equally dangerous forces of keeping the peaceFrom the bestselling author of The Girl in Times Square, comes the magnificent conclusion to the saga that was set in motion when Tatiana fell in love with her Red Army officer, Alexander Belov, in wartime Leningrad in 1941.Tatiana and Alexander have since suffered the worst the twentieth century had to offer. After years of separation, they are miraculously reunited in America, the land of their dreams. They have a beautiful son, Anthony. They have proved to each other that their love is greater than the vast evil of the world. But though they are only in their twenties, in their hearts they are old, and they are strangers. In the climate of fear and mistrust of the Cold War, dark forces are at work in the US that threaten their life and their family. Can they be happy? Or will the ghosts of yesterday reach out to blight even the destiny of their firstborn son?Epic in scope, masterfully told, The Summer Garden is a novel of unique and devastating emotional power that spans two thirds of the twentieth century, and three continents.

PAULLINA SIMONS

THE SUMMER

GARDEN

Copyright (#ulink_4cb7ceaf-087c-5f02-82b4-316c32c65bd7)

HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd.

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London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2006

Copyright © Paullina Simons 2005

Besame Mucho Written by Consuelo Velasquez © 1941 & 1943 P.H.A.M., Mexico Latin-American Music Pub. Co. Ltd, London. Used by permission

Paullina Simons asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

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Source ISBN: 9780007162499

Ebook Edition © MARCH 2015 ISBN: 9780007390816

Version: 2017-09-25

Dedication (#ulink_75e4f06d-7338-5f64-b19b-23987dc4d160)

For Kevin, my own mystic guide

Epigraph (#ulink_2f786a2e-4004-598f-b307-82ad1b54c75d)

By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down,Yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst …For there, they that carried us awaycaptive required of us a song,And they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying,Sing us one of the songs of Zion.How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?Psalm 137

The song of songs, which is Solomon’s.The Song of Solomon

Contents

Cover (#u33c097dd-1b6e-52fc-b840-97aaa0fc9439)

Title Page (#udac6243d-5c8f-59e8-9788-c0b5f12119cb)

Copyright (#ulink_ca59dec5-b5d4-5486-8fc7-0890e20ac1b3)

Dedication (#ulink_1611f9b2-3d61-5952-97cf-23c1b886d264)

Epigraph (#ulink_962b7d8d-0e59-5ff1-8fee-960a9f9e3bff)

Book One: The Land of Lupine and Lotus (#ulink_62bdafe1-eccb-5651-8a5b-067590090cb0)

Chapter One: Deer Isle, 1946 (#ulink_89cf5a69-da2d-5eb2-aa9b-c6dbf61356c0)

Chapter Two: Coconut Grove, 1947 (#ulink_1edb484a-ce0a-5276-929a-dea231c49c65)

Chapter Three: Paradise Valley, 1947 (#ulink_5513456d-aab9-51ef-a9d1-5197dd370c9b)

Chapter Four: Vianza, 1947 (#ulink_c00d8ff0-bd68-59fd-893e-b53f59f6f164)

Chapter Five: Bethel Island, 1948 (#ulink_2f895ffb-f5dc-553e-bcad-08567a829488)

Chapter Six: Jane Barrington, 1948 (#ulink_72658d0b-a810-563a-b3c8-d7ac5eb4bdf5)

First Interlude: Saika Kantorova, 1938 (#litres_trial_promo)

Pasha (#litres_trial_promo)

Book Two: Ithaca (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Seven: Conjugal Compromises (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eight: The House that Balkman Built (#litres_trial_promo)

Second Interlude: The Queen of Spades (#litres_trial_promo)

Cousin Marina (#litres_trial_promo)

Book Three: Dissonance (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Nine: The Five-Year Plan (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Ten: Blockade Girl (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eleven: Blue Christmas (#litres_trial_promo)