“I can’t tell you that. I haven’t even started.”
“But surely you already know! Surely you can tell me about the beginning!”
He smiles at her enthusiasm. She is like a child, heady with anticipation. He already knows his journey into writing this book will be far less simple than she imagines, far more foreboding, far darker than she can ever fathom.
Nicolas is aware he will need to venture back into that black well of suffering, into Natacha’s secret pain, into his own failure in trying to save her. He will have to open the door to the silent torment he was faced with when confronted with Alexeï’s death, with his father’s death, with the dreadful finality of their watery graves, with the many unanswered questions. Saint Petersburg awaits. Back to the Koltchine family. Back to Pisareva Street, to the Fontanka, to Volkovo, with Lisaveta Sapounova by his side.
But now Natacha’s story weaves its powerful strand into his personal tapestry, adding other colors, other textures. Now Nicolas can see the book clearly, as clearly as he saw the lit-up runway for The Envelope. The story is sketched out in front of him, like the long, dangling rope ladder leading to the Sagamor’s upper deck, like the distress rockets blooming white into the dark sky. To write the novel, Nicolas knows, he will have to dip his father’s Montblanc pen into Russian ink.
Acknowledgments
In alphabetical order:
Elisabeth Barillé, my “Russian sister,” for being my Saint Petersburg eyes before I got there.
Elena Boudnikova, for her help.
“Momo” Cohen-Solal, for the cigar details.
Abha Dawesar, for her feedback.
Julia Delbourg, for the khâgne information.
Dagmar Hunold, for kindly lending me her name (without the t).
Ksenia, my Russian teacher, for her patience.
Laure du Pavillon and Catherine Rousseau-Rambaud, my faithful first readers.
Last but not least:
My Russian family, Natalya, Anka, Volodia, and their children, for their welcome and for taking us on Tatoulya and Natacha’s trail in Saint Petersburg.
The SMP team in N.Y.C.
And thank you above all:
My children, Louis and Charlotte, for their unfailing support.
My husband, Nicolas, who gave me the key to Manderley.
Also by Tatiana de Rosnay
The House I Loved
A Secret Kept
Sarah’s Key
TATIANA DE ROSNAY is the author of ten novels, including the New York Times bestselling novels Sarah’s Key and A Secret Kept. Sarah’s Key is an international sensation with over five million copies sold in thirty-eight countries worldwide, and has now been made into a major motion picture. Together with Dan Brown and Steig Larsson, Tatiana was named one of the top three fiction writers in Europe in 2010. She lives with her husband and two children in Paris, where she is at work on her next book. Visit her online at www.tatianaderosnay.com.
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
THE OTHER STORY. Copyright © 2013 by Éditions Héloise d’Ormesson, Paris. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.stmartins.com
Cover design by Michael Storrings
Cover photograph by Susan Fox/Trevillion Images
The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
Rosnay, Tatiana de, 1961–
The other story / Tatiana de Rosnay.—First U.S. Edition.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-1-250-04513-3 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-4668-4353-0 (e-book)
1. Authorship—Fiction. 2. Family secrets—Fiction. I. Title.
PR9105.9.R66O88 2014
823'.914—dc23
2013046591
e-ISBN 9781466843530
First published in France under the title À L’encre russe by Éditions Héloise d’Ormesson in 2013
First Edition: April 2014