I've read Schwartz's earlier historical novel The Commoner and was eager to see what he would do with this one, based on the life of Stalin's daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva, who defected to the US in 1967. He gives us two narrators, Svetlana herself and Peter Horvath, a young lawyer sent by the CIA to escort her to freedom. Interestingly, Schwartz's own father was the real-life lawyer on whom the character is based, and he had access to letters and documents that help to flesh out the story. His father (and his character) maintained a lifelong relationship with Svetlana, despite her demanding and sometimes irrational behavior. In the novel, she reminisces about her father, whose behavior towards his children was domineering and cruel, and about the son and daughter she left behind in the USSR. She struggles through a series of relationships and marriages, including one to Frank Lloyd Wright's former son-in-law, a marriage that resulted in a lengthy tenancy at Taliesin West and her only American-born child. Svetlana comes across as both a lonely woman looking for a place to belong in her new country and a selfish, headstrong, domineering woman who can't seem to break from her privileged yet tyrannical past. In any case, hers is a sad but fascinating story. Peter Horvath is the perfect foil: patient, reasonable, yet not afraid to speak his mind.

The Red Daughter is well written and well researched, and it has made me want to learn more about Svetlana and the struggles she faced as the daughter of one of history's most brutal dictators. ( )

The Red Daughter by John Burnham Schwartz is a recommended fictionalized historical account of the defection of Svetlana Alliluyeva, the daughter of Joseph Stalin.

In 1967 at the age of 41, Svetlana Alliluyeva defected and came to America, abandoning her children, 16 and 21, in Moscow. A lawyer, Peter Horvath, is recruited by the CIA to assist the State Department in smuggling her into the USA. Her instant notoriety gains her some fame, but she claims she wants to live a simple American life. After sending Svetlana numerous letters, the widow of the architect Frank Lloyd Wright finally persuades her to visit the cult-like community in Arizona at Taliesin West. She ends up quickly marrying again, has another child, and it ends badly. She increasingly turns to Peter for support.

The novel is a fictionalized account based on the files of the author’s father, Alan U. Schwartz, who was the lawyer who accompanied Svetlana Alliluyeva to the United States. Schwartz has used his father's notes and years of research to create this fictionalized story based on historical facts. What is clearly presented is that Svetlana was a tortured woman who, with her personal history, would have struggled with life to some extent no matter where she lived.

The technical quality writing is excellent. In the narrative, the course of Svetlana's life is based on known facts, but the emotions and feelings are all deductions. Fictional journal entries help develop her character while tell her past and present story. The novel is based on her life, but also has a huge heaping dose of added artistic license; so, the factual events of her life are captured, but the emotional turmoil is more of an extrapolation of what she might have been feeling or thinking. While reading the pacing and narrative felt uneven. Some parts of the novel soar and move quickly, others drag slowly along.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Random House Publishing Group.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2019/05/the-red-daughter.html ( )

Svetlana Alliluyeva is the only daughter of the Soviet dictator, Joseph Stalin. Stalin was a brutal leader and millions of his own people died during his horrific reign. He was a cold, insensitive man. But he loved his little girl and called her “my little housekeeper”. Then Svetlana grew up and fell in love with a young man who her father didn’t like. He cruelly had the man arrested and deported to Siberia. Thus began the estrangement between Svetlana and her father.

In 1967, Svetlana decided to defect to the United States. She left behind her two children, I believe the daughter was 16 and the son was 22, if I remember correctly. The CIA sent a young lawyer, Peter Horvath, to smuggle her out of Russia. This was a huge and stressful decision on her part and led to much publicity here in the US and complete alienation by her children. All Svetlana wants is a peaceful American life away from her father’s evil name. She attempt to find that life in Princeton, NJ. When an invitation by the widow of architect Frank Lloyd Wright comes, she decides to see what Taliesin West is all about. She’s pulled into the cultist community there and exchanges one dictator in her life to another, the controlling Olgivana Lloyd Wright, who believes Svetlana has money that the community could use.

The book slightly covers Svetlana’s younger years but mostly concentrates on the time after her defection to America. Interestingly, the author’s father is the young lawyer who accompanied Svetlana to America. The author is given his father’s private papers to use so there are parts of actual letters in this book. However, the author departs from accurate history in several respects. I find it very odd that he chooses to invent a romantic interest between Svetlana and her lawyer, especially since that lawyer was Schwartz’s own father and the love triangle would have involved his mother. I can see that from a literary sense it was a good choice but I much prefer a historical novel more based on fact than fiction; otherwise, I would have given this sensitive novel 5 stars. It does seem that most of the book is factual, other than the change of some names and the switching of the sex of some children mentioned and of course the romantic relationship between Svetlana and Peter.

Svetlana’s life was certainly a tragic one and she’s a very sympathetic character. She struggles for so many years with her abandonment of her two oldest children. She’s a broken woman in many ways and my heart bled for her situation and her confusion. It’s a heart breaking, engrossing story and this author, being a very talented one, brings Svetlana back to life. I’ve always been very interested in the life of Frank Lloyd Wright and found that part of the book fascinating. Based on what I know of how Taliesin West was run after his death, I found all of that to be very believable. This historical novel has inspired me to read Svetlana’s own memoirs that have been published or possibly some biographies on her fascinating life.

Recommended.

This book was given to me by the publisher in return for an honest review. ( )

THE RED DAUGHTER, by John Burnham Schwartz, is a rich and layered reimagining of Svetlana Alliluyeva’s life as the only daughter of Joseph Stalin. Using multiple real sources as inspiration, Schwartz's book is a study of how familial legacy can affect one's life as an individual, a mother, and a spouse.
While telling the story of Svetlana Alliluyeva's life, Schwartz constantly reminds us that for Svetlana, someone is always watching her and Schwartz at times lulls the reader into forgetting it for a moment, only to jarringly have those piercing eyes of the world find their way back to Svetlana again and again. Schwartz's style also elicits sympathy at times for Svetlana, while at other moments she seems selfish and bullheaded. I'd like to think that reflected on who Svetlana was; someone who at times knows who she is and what she wants and at other times her emotions press her to make rash decisions regardless of who it affects. The point of view in the book shifts back and forth between Svetlana and the lawyer in the story,Peter Horvath, the lawyer that helped her escape from Russia. Schwartz uses the two point of views to help tell Svetlana's story, but also to add or subtract emotional resonance along the way.
It is sometimes hard as a reader to not have a conclusion or an ending to a story that feels complete. THE RED DAUGHTER felt incomplete to me, but after some contemplation, I was okay with that because it reflected Svetlana's life and her never feeling real contentment or resolution.
Thank you to Random House, John Burnham Schwartz, and Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review! ( )