The House of Special Purpose: A Novel by the Author of The Heart's Invisible Furies [Paperback]

From the author of The Heart’s Invisible Furies and The Absolutist, a propulsive novel of the Russian Revolution and the fate of the Romanov family. 
 
Part love story, part historical epic, part tragedy, The House of Special Purpose illuminates an empire at the end of its reign. Eighty-year-old Georgy Jachmenev is haunted by his past—a past of death, suffering, and scandal that will stay with him until the end of his days.  
 
Living in England with his beloved wife, Zoya, Georgy prepares to make one final journey back to the Russia he once knew and loved, the Russia that both destroyed and defined him. 
 
As Georgy remembers days gone by, we are transported to St. Petersburg, to the Winter Palace of the czar, in the early twentieth century—a time of change, threat, and bloody revolution. As Georgy overturns the most painful stone of all, we uncover the story of the house of special purpose.“[Boyne] guides us through the realm of history and makes the journey substantial, poignant, and real. He is one of the great craftsmen in contemporary literature.” —Colum McCann, National Book Award–winning author of Let the Great World Spin
 
“A tour de force, at once epic and intimate, and above all a marvelous read.” —John Banville, Booker Prize–winning author of The Sea 
 
“[The House of Special Purpose] translates big issues of political change into more intimate, human terms…an exciting, fast-paced story that compels the reader through its seventy-year span…absorbing and richly satisfying.lC%