Lara

Book excerpt: Lara is the heartbreaking story of lovers Boris Pasternak, the author of Doctor Zhivago, and Olga Ivinskaya—the true tragedy behind the timeless classic. “Anna Pasternak does not spare an ounce of drama nor detail from the story of her great-uncle’s love affair with Olga Ivinskaya, the inspiration for Doctor Zhivago’s Lara. The result is a profoundly moving meditation on love, loyalty and, ultimately, forgiveness.” —New York Times–bestselling author Amanda Foreman When Stalin came into power in 1924, the Communist government began persecuting dissident writers. Though he spared the life of Boris Pasternak—whose novel-in-progress, Doctor Zhivago, was suspected of being anti-Soviet—Stalin persecuted Boris’s mistress, typist, and literary muse, Olga Ivinskaya. Boris’s affair devastated the Pasternaks, and they were keen to disavow Olga’s role in Boris’s writing. Twice sentenced to work in Siberian labor camps, Olga was interrogated about Boris’s book, but she didn’t betray the man she loved. Released from the gulags, Olga assumed that Boris would leave his wife for her but, trapped by his family’s expectations and his own weak will, he never did. Drawing on previously neglected family sources and original interviews, Anna Pasternak explores her great-uncle’s hidden act of moral compromise, and restores to history the passionate affair that inspired and animated Doctor Zhivago. Devastated that Olga suffered on his behalf and frustrated that he could not match her loyalty to him, Boris instead channeled his thwarted passion for her into his novel’s love story. Filled with the rich detail of Boris’s secret life, Lara unearths a moving love story of courage, loyalty, suffering, drama, and loss, casting a new light on the legacy of Doctor Zhivago.