This book won't be to everyone's taste, as the subject is a bit dry, but as someone who is interested in history I found it fascinating. Mischa is 16 and he lives in the Kremlin with his father who is one of Stalin's closest friends and advisers This is despite the fact that Mischa's mother has appeared to have been dragged off by the NKVD (predecessors of the KGB) and could be dead or struggling to survive in a far off labour camp. It is 1941 and the Germans are approaching Moscow and the city is on edge. Mischa' s best friend is an older girl called Valya, and together they must work out who to trust in a climate of betrayal and hostility. If the author has done their research properly and this is true, it must have been awful to have been working for a drunk, corrupt mad man like Stalin...where people on the streets were starving and yet the Kremlin were still enjoying Csar like conditions. Not bad. Thought-provoking but I think it will be a hard sell with young adults. ( )