Candace Fleming’s primary focus in this ambitious and compelling work is the story of the Romanov family’s rule of Russia at the start of the twentieth century, including their fall from power and eventual murder. But she provides essential counterpoint and context by weaving in voices of peasants and workers in Russia at the time, stories that describe the widespread poverty, horrifying anti-Semitism, and rising political tensions both within and beyond the vast nation’s borders. The Romanovs were a family of absolute wealth and privilege. Tsar Nicholas was a devoted family man and not without compassion, but it was selective and limited. He was ill-prepared, misguided, and uninformed in his role as Tsar, and didn’t want to know the details of the lives of the country’s citizens. Alexandra, his wife, was intelligent and powerful but also desperate to ease the suffering of her son, Alexei, a hemophiliac. As World War I escalated, Nicholas abdicated almost all responsibility to Alexandra, the Communists seized control, the Bolsheviks took command under Lenin, and the family became prisoners and were eventually executed. Full of intrigue, Fleming’s narrative is also written with intricate and often moving detail. The children of Nicholas and Alexandra — Alexei and his sisters, including Anastasia — become familiar, even if they aren’t always likable. This is part of what makes the book so remarkable: It is full of the complexity of human behavior. Actions may often be easy to label right or wrong, but individuals are contradictory and infuriating and poignant. Sections of black-and-white photographs further illuminate the lives of both rich and poor. (Age 14 and older)

In this “superb history” (The Wall Street Journal), award-winning author Candace Fleming tells the extraordinary true story of Russia’s last royal family—and transports readers back to a time when both a bloodline and an empire came tumbling down.

“Has all the elements of a fictional thriller . . . woven into a fascinating work of history.”— The Washington Post

WINNER: Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Young Adult Literature and Boston Globe–Horn Book Award for Nonfiction • A Robert F. Sibert Honor Book • A YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Award Finalist • A Kirkus Reviews Best Young Adult Book of the Century

He was Tsar Nicholas II of Russia: the wealthiest monarch in the world, who ruled over 130 million people and one-sixth of the earth’s land surface, yet turned a blind eye to the abject poverty of his subjects.

She was Empress Alexandra: stern, reclusive, and painfully shy, a deeply religious woman obsessed with the corrupt mystic Rasputin.

Their daughters were the Grand Duchess Olga, Tatiana, Marie, and Anastasia: completely isolated and immature girls who wore identical white dresses and often signed joint letters as OTMA, the initials of their first names.

Their only son was Tsarevich Alexei: youngest of the Romanovs, heir to the throne, a hemophiliac whose debilitating illness was kept secret from the rest of the world.

Candace Fleming deftly maneuvers between the plight of Russia’s poor masses and the extravagant lives of the Romanovs, from their opulent upbringings to the crumbling of their massive empire, and finally to their tragic murders. Using captivating photos and compelling first-person accounts throughout, The Family Romanov is history at its most absorbing.