The second novel from the highly acclaimed author of 'Coldwater'.
This beautifully fable-like story ranges from the rigid routines of the Imperial Dancers in pre-revolutionary Russia, to exile in Australia at the outbreak of World War Two.
Russian-born Galina, who has danced for the tsar and for Dagliev's famous ballet in Paris, operates a highly disciplined dance school - an outpost of Imperial Russia - in the dusty Adelaide of the 1940s and 1950s. From this humble base she goes on to form what becomes Australia's first professional ballet troupe. Travelling the country it attracts a beautiful, talented young man.
These two enact the story of the snow queen - the stern, beautiful woman who picks out a boy for herself, piercing his heart with a spike of ice, only to have her own pierced cruelly in return.
Full of dark memories and secrets from the past, this is a haunting, jewel-like story that will linger in the mind, and confirms Mardi as one of Australia's most exciting new writers.
