"A child of the Kremlin who as an adult defected to the United States, Svetlana led a strange and often sad life; Sullivan brings deep scholarship and sympathy to her story." - Boston Globe, Best Books of 2015
"Revealing.... Sullivan's biography takes us beyond...obvious truth and helps us understand, through Svetlana's stormy history, the nature of regimes that are as brutal as Stalin's was." - New York Review of Books
"A principal virtue of...Sullivan's empathetic Stalin's Daughter is the vivid sense it offers of Alliluyeva.... Sullivan does a nice job of conveying her subject's point of view without accepting it as the last word." - Los Angeles Times
"...[an] arresting biography." - More Magazine
"Although other authors have provided more systematic analysis of the substance and mechanics of Stalin's terror, Rosemary Sullivan...provides one of the more emotionally draining illustrations of Stalin's evil.... As Sullivan makes clear, Stalin's daughter led a full and dramatically tumultuous life." - Philadelphia Inquirer
"[An] extraordinary book.... Rosemary Sullivan possesses the sensitivity necessary to unlock a beguiling and complex character worthy of admiration, not ridicule.... Superb." - Washington Post
"A detailed, sensitive and...sympathetic account of Alliluyeva's turbulent and tragic life." - San Francisco Chronicle
"A compelling biography...Sullivan tells [Alliluyeva's] story with sympathy and verve." - Minneapolis Star-Tribune
"[A] measured, informative biography...fascinating...an admiring portrait of an amazingly adaptable person facing all but insurmountable odds...[and who] refused to let her lineage seal her fate." - Janet Maslin, New York Times Book Review
"Stalin's Daughter is a poignant look at the struggles of a dictator's offspring." - Christian Science Monitor
"[A] magisterial biography." - O Magazine
""With a gentle literary touch, [Sullivan] lets readers follow Alliluyeva as she wanders the U.S. and U.K...." - Los Angeles Magazine
"Compelling.... Sullivan takes us confidently through an eventful life.... It's to Ms. Sullivan's credit that, at least in these pages, Alliluyeva herself is proved...a fascinating person not simply because of her name but because she was a willful, intelligent, passionate woman who resisted being gawked at as a freak of history: the monster's pretty daughter." - Wall Street Journal
"Insightful and thoroughly researched.... This excellent and engrossing biography is suitable for anyone interested in Russian history or in Svetlana's struggle to make a difference in a world that never could separate her from her." - Library Journal
"Sullivan draws on previously secret documents and interviews with Svetlana's American daughter, her friends, and the CIA "handler" who escorted her to the U.S. for riveting accounts of her complicated life." - Booklist (starred review)
"If it weren't for the pages of scrupulous footnotes and the many interviews Rosemary Sullivan pursued you would be convinced that this was fiction. But it's a true story, thrillingly told in this fast-paced, fascinating biography." - Cokie Roberts, New York Times bestselling author of Founding Mothers, Ladies of Liberty, and Capital Dames
"Sullivan does an admirable job of researching, organizing and contextualizing the events of Alliluyeva's bewildering life.... It is an excellent book, and deserves a wide readership." - Dallas Morning News
"Riveting.... Throughout, Sullivan treats the wealth of facts she has uncovered with a sensitive, compassionate touch.... Sullivan tells a nuanced story that, while invariably sympathetic, nonetheless allows readers the freedom of their own interpretations." - Olga Grushin, New York Times Book Review
"Compassionate and compelling, Sullivan sensitively delivers the intimate, tragic life story of a woman who was Stalin's only daughter in all its strangeness.... This is not a political story but a quest for love in the heart of darkness." - Simon Sebag Montefiore, bestselling author of Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar
"A biography of haunting fascination portrays its subject as a pawn of historical circumstance who tried valiantly to create her own life. Canadian biographer Sullivan's previous works often took her into the complicated lives of women artists, and in this sympathetic biography of Stalin's daughter, Svetlana Alliluyeva (1926-2011), the author has illuminated another challenging, mercurial subject.... With great compassion, Sullivan reveals how both sides played her for their own purposes, yet she was a writer first and foremost, a passionate Russian soul who wanted a human connection yet could not quite find the way into the Western heart. The author manages suspense and intrigue at every turn." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"In her poignant biography, Canadian writer Rosemary Sullivan tells Alliluyeva's story with sympathy and sharp psychological insight....Stalin's Daughter soars on details culled from dozens of interviews and impressive archival research from KGB and CIA files. The glimpses into the Stalin household are invariably fascinating, and the subsequent wanderings of Svetlana as she searches for inner peace take on an epic quality. It is to Sullivan's credit that she makes the Homeric wanderings of Svetlana Alliluyeva--who died, almost penniless, in 2011--not only comprehensible, but also unforgettably moving." - Newsday
"Sullivan tells Alliluyeva's story with sympathy and sharp psychological insight.... [It] soars.... It is to Sullivan's credit that she makes the Homeric wanderings of Svetlana Alliluyeva--who died, almost penniless, in 2011--not only comprehensible, but also unforgettably moving." - Newsday
"Stalin's only daughter, lived an almost impossible life at the edges of 20th-century history.... Sullivan masterfully employs interviews, Alliluyeva's own letters, and the contents of CIA, KGB, and Soviet archives to stitch together a coherent narrative of her fractured life... A head-spinning journey as Alliluyeva attempts to escape her father's shadow without ever fully comprehending the man who cast it." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Stalin's only daughter, lived an almost impossible life at the edges of 20th-century history.... Sullivan masterfully employs interviews, Alliluyeva's own letters, and the contents of CIA, KGB, and Soviet archives to stitch together a coherent narrative of her fractured life." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Publisher: Harper Perennial

Pub date: 2016-06-21

Length: 624 pages