Orlando Figes’s enthralling, richly evocative history has been heralded as a literary masterpiece on Russia, the lives of those who have shaped its culture, and the enduring spirit of a people.

‘Awe-inspiring … Natasha’s Dance has all the qualities of an epic tragedy’
Frances Welsh, Mail on Sunday

‘A tour de force by the great storyteller of modern Russian historians … Figes mobilizes a cast of serf harems, dynasties, politburos, libertines, filmmakers, novelists, composers, poets, tsars and tyrants … superb, flamboyant and masterful’
Simon Sebag Montefiore, Financial Times

‘It is so much fun to read that I hesitate to write too much, for fear of spoiling the pleasures and surprises of the book’
Anne Applebaum, Sunday Telegraph

‘Magnificent … Figes is at his exciting best’
Robert Service, Guardian

‘Breathtaking … The title of this masterly history comes from War and Peace, when the aristocratic heroine, Natasha Rostova, finds herself intuitively picking up the rhythm of a peasant dance … One of those books that, at times, makes you wonder how you have so far managed to do without it’
Robin Buss, Independent on Sunday

‘Thrilling, dizzying … I would defy any reader not to be captivated’
Lindsey Hughes, Literary Review