Elvira Baryakina is a Russian American author of historical novels.
Elvira is also the creator and editor of one of the most popular website for Russian-speaking authors: Writer’s Guide: How to Publish and Promote Your Book.
Her current project is the thoroughly researched historical series set in the beginning of the 20th centaury.
THE ARGENTINEAN
Ten years ago, Klim Rogov had emigrated from Russia to Argentina, learned Spanish, and became one of the most popular journalists in Buenos Aires. In 1917, he comes back to his native city, Nizhniy Novgorod, to inherit a small fortune left by his father. He thinks that Russia, ruined by the World War, will benefit from the revolution. Neither he nor his friends surmise that once the Bolsheviks seize power, their country as they know it will be razed to the ground.
Klim becomes an eyewitness of big-scale black market affairs and secret diplomatic negotiations. He serves as an interpreter in the International Detachment of the Red Army, writes ambiguous articles for the Bolshevik newspaper, and teaches the basics of hygiene at the Seamen’s University – all for the sake of getting a chance to escape from Russia.
Status: Work in progress. The novel will be finished in the fall of 2010.
WHITE SHANGHAI
Date of realease: March 2010
The website: http://whiteshanghai.com
1922. Rich, semi-colonial Shanghai is gripped with panic: a squadron of ships enters the harbor - the last detachment of the White Army defeated by the Bolsheviks. Two thousand Russians request permission to come ashore.
Klim Rogov no longer has any wealth other than his wit and a sparkling talent for journalism. His wife, Nina, secretly runs away from him into the city. She needs a different type of a scoffer: one who shows his teeth but does not laugh. A man with an adding machine in his head and American dollars in the lining of his shoes.
"Sly girl, you don’t know Shanghai. If the Lord allows it to stand, it should apologize for Sodom and Gomorrah. Here deep racism flourishes, here the most profitable business is the opium trade, here the Bolsheviks are gearing up for a new proletarian revolution."
PRINCE OF THE SOVIETS
After five years abroad, Klim Rogov comes back to the USSR as an American tourist. His real goal is to find his wife Nina, who was abducted by the Soviet secret service and brought to Moscow.
1927 is the first year of Stalin becoming the sole ruler of Russia. The Iron Curtain falls down; the Soviet people are looking for someone to blame for the failure of Socialist paradise. Westerners become pariahs — all but the trustworthy Communists and a few businessmen who somehow managed to get concessions from the Bolshevik government. To Klim’s great surprise, there are Red millionaires in Russia. In this club of the chosen ones, he finds his wife. As always, she is just in the right place at the right time.
Status: Researching the materials. The novel will be finished in 2011.
