Tsarina

Lover, mother, murderer, Tsarina - Ellen Alpsten's debut tells for the first time the rags to unimaginable riches story of the serf's daughter who became the Empress of Russia.


Sold into household labour as a child, Catherine survives assault, betrayal, heartbreak, the machinations of the Russian court and the grand guignol of poverty to become Peter the Great's most trusted confidante and ruler in her own right. Her riveting, compulsive rise to power takes place against the backdrop of Peter the Great's campaign to modernise Russia into a major Western power, one of the most transformative moments in European history.