Suzanne Parry’s interest in the Soviet Union began in college. As as undergraduate, she studied Russian in Moscow. After earning a master’s degree from Princeton University, she joined the US Department of Defense and worked as an arms control specialist at the Pentagon, where she helped negotiate the Conference on Disarmament in Europe, the first security agreement of the Gorbachev era. Suzanne went on to raise a large family (requiring its own negotiating skills), teach university, and move to several different countries. She landed in Portland, Oregon, where she coached high school cross-country and track before embarking on a writing career. A committed runner, she has completed several dozen marathons, including the fifty-six-mile Comrades Marathon in South Africa. She now divides her time between Portland and Washington, DC. When not writing, running, or planning her next travel adventure, she enjoys time with her adult children and grandchildren. She lives in Portland, OR.

From the tyranny of Stalin through the desperation of World War II, this is a story of struggle and survival, of devotion, duty, and family, and of love lost and sometimes found again.

June 1941. Hitler’s armies race toward vulnerable Leningrad. In a matter of weeks, the Nazis surround the city, cut off the food supply, and launch a vicious bombardment. Widowed violinist Sofya Karavayeva and her teenage granddaughter, Yelena, are cornered in the crumbling city.

On Leningrad’s outskirts, Admiral Vasili Antonov defends his homeland and fights for a future with Sofya. Meanwhile, Yelena’s soldier fiancé transports food across the Ice Road—part of the desperate effort to save Leningrad. With their help, the two women inch toward survival, but the war still exacts a steep personal price, even as Sofya’s reckoning with a family secret threatens to finish what Hitler started.

Equal parts war epic, family saga, and love story, Lost Souls of Leningrad brings to vivid life this little-known chapter of World War II in a tale of two remarkable women—grandmother and granddaughter—separated by years and experience but of one heart in their devotion to each other and the men they love. Neither the oppression of Stalin nor the brutality of Hitler can destroy their courage, compassion, or will in this testament to resilience.

Written by a former arms control negotiator turned historical novelist, this epic WWII tale of betrayal and second chances details how a woman trapped in occupied Russia fights the Nazis—and her own demons.

For fans of Kate Quinn and Mark Sullivan, a haunting World War II novel of mistakes and second chances, of courage and the search for forgiveness, and of finding peace with oneself.

Driven by a blind devotion to the Communist Party, self-centered Katya Karavayeva has broken the most important rule in Soviet society: never say anything that can be used against you. On the heels of that betrayal, Nazi Germany invades and the Soviet Union mobilizes. Katya hopes to halt her downward spiral by joining the volunteer militia, but within a few short weeks finds herself under attack.

After escaping with another volunteer, Katya spends weeks on the run before landing in a town under Nazi occupation. There, she finds a place and a purpose and learns to fight a different kind of war, repaying German brutality with a harsh justice of her own. All the while she struggles against her inner demons and dreams of reunion with her daughter and forgiveness from her husband—the one she betrayed.