The Boy Who Flew Too Far

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Authors

Rigdon, Suzanne

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Abstract

When 17-year-old Alex Marin discovers a slip of paper covered in Cyrillic writing in an old Russian storybook and reads it out loud, he is transported back to the icy streets of 1905 St. Petersburg, on the eve of what Lenin would later call the “dress rehearsal for the Russian Revolution:” Bloody Sunday. He is dropped into a world of poverty, class tension, and a fracturing autocracy ruled by Tsar Nicholas II, the last Tsar of Russia. There, he meets Oksana, a girl who lives disguised as a boy. She introduces Alex to the Inshov family: the teenaged Pyotr, his little sister, and their father, who all live in a cramped tenement in the slums made famous by Dostoyevsky. Oksana and Pyotr teach Alex how to work hard, steal without punishment, and survive the unforgiving streets. When the Tsar’s soldiers open fire on the Inshovs and other peaceful marchers carrying a workers’ petition to the Palace several days after Alex arrives, the city erupts into bloody chaos. Alex must help the family escape, knowing that by doing so, he could remain stuck in the past, never to return home.

Description

This thesis has been embargoed and will not be available until March 7, 2032 at the earliest.

Keywords

Fiction, Russia, Folk tale, Bloody Sunday

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