Peter the Great.

The summer of 1672. A child is born in the Kremlin. No one knows that his first cry is the first cry of a new Russia. From the award-winning author Anna Gogoleva comes a sweeping, visceral novel about the most enigmatic and fearsome ruler in Russian history. Told through the eyes of a clerk sworn to record the truth, Peter the Great plunges you into a world of incense and blood, of boyars whispering treason in the shadows, and of Streltsy rebels howling for murder on the Red Porch. Witness Peter's journey from a terrified child, watching his family butchered, to an iron-willed tsar who will stop at nothing to drag his nation from the swamps of backwardness. Sail with him on the little boat that sparked a dream of the sea. Stand with him in the frozen hell of Narva, and ride with him to the triumphant roar of Poltava. This is not a dry history lesson. This is a confession. A story of a man who loved Russia more than his own son, more than his own soul, and paid the terrible price for greatness. For fans of historical epics, gripping drama, and stories of power, sacrifice, and the brutal cost of change.