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ADVANCE INFORMATION

The Champagne

Wagon

A Russian Journey

Ralph Boulton

KEY SELLING POINTS
A novel, part thriller and part love story, set in a Moscow hotel where foreign communist leaders and their
families are caught up in Stalin’s bloody purges.
From an author with extensive first-hand knowledge of Russia, its history and people.
Highlights an atmosphere of terror and betrayal amid night-time arrests and unexplained disappearances.

British miner Harry Speares is no admirer of Josef Stalin. But when his communist father Joseph goes to work
at the headquarters of Moscow’s international subversive network, Comintern, he reluctantly accompanies him -
lured by promises of education denied him at home.

In Moscow’s Hotel Lux, foreign communist leaders live alongside fighters, journalists, teachers, spies and
bureaucrats from around the world. Harry meets the mysterious and powerful young German woman Rosa
Zander, who verses him in the peculiar rituals of his new home.
His fears for their safety seem at first unjustified. Rooms hum with debate and music, children play in the
corridors. Then arrests begin. As his attachment to Rosa grows, so does his fear of her. What is her role? Is she
friend, lover or jailer?

Ralph Boulton has been a foreign correspondent for many years. In Russia he reported on the collapse of the
Soviet Union, Moscow coups and armed conflicts in the Baltics, the Caucasus, Central Asia and Ukraine. He
spent three years working in East Berlin and then five as Reuters Bureau Chief in Turkey, covering the rise of
political Islam. More recently, he was Reuters World Desk Chief and Political Editor for Europe, Middle East
and Africa. Ralph lives in London.

Publication Date: 28th September 2024 £10.99 ISBN: 9781805145387
Thema subject category: FV – Historical fiction
paperback 198 x 129 mm 400 pp Portrait Author location: London

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