The Star of Kazan
by Eva Ibbotson
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Book Summary Information
Author: Eva IbbotsonEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-04-06
ISBN: 0142405825
Number of pages: 416
Publisher: Puffin
Book Reviews of The Star of Kazan
Book Review: Richly Textured story, a full cast of characters and great fun read
Summary: 5 Stars
An excellent page turning read, which is about more than just the Star of Kazan which is the feature of the title. This is the story of courage and finding yourself - and in the end, it seems that is exactly what seems to happen - all the characters find out exactly what they are - good, bad, or brave.
Annika is a baby when is abandoned at a mountain chapel - and found by two servants who look after a trio of professors. Raised with love and affection in household, Annika is content, cooking with Sigrid, who found her, and playing with the other children in the square. However Annika dreams of what her mother really is - and has dreams that one day she will try to find her and take her away to her castle.
Reality is less romantic - the snobby girl from the across the square cannot bear to read or listen to her great aunt who has been shoved away to die in the attic she starts paying Annika to read to her instead. However Annika listens as the old lady talks of her life, as a perforner in Paris Music Hall, and of her happy marriage in Italy, and she shows her the photos. When she fell on hard times she pawned in the beautiful jewels she was given and had paste ones made instead. Now with no money she is forced to live with her only relative in the attic, dying slowly left mostly to herself. Annika adores the stories she tells of her life and is heartbroken when she dies.
Annika's life changes when the old lady dies, first she is left the Old Lady's belongings and secondly her mother finally comes to claim - just as Annika imagined, in a coach. Her Mother, the wonderfullly named Edeltraut Von Tannenburg from Spittal takes her back to the castle (there has always been a Von Tannenburg at Spittal) is her constant refrain to her son. There is very little food, and what food there is is very bad. However Annika is not allowed to help or be a servant. At Spittal she meets the gypsy boy one of two servants left - he is the groom, but has only stayed to care for the horse he brought with him from Hungary. As soon as the old woman servant of the house leaves he has also vowed to leave. But there is a growing affection between Annika and himself and he realises that there is more to protect in the house.
Annika remains unaffected by the grandiose indifference of the Von Tannenburgs but all isn't as it seems. In fact when she finds a picture floating in the nearby lake that she remembers from the Old Lady's trunk she doesn't understand. What could it be doing floating in a lake in Spittal. When she asks her mother everything changes, The Gypsy groom is sent away, and Annika herself is sent to a school for Young Ladies. A school where they are all known by numbers rather than name and where cruelty seems to be associated with education.
Family and friends are not too far away and through extraodinary feats of courage Annika's true fate is realised.
A wonderful story where each character has its own real story, not simply a back story to enhance Annika's own. There are some very big leaps of faith in accidental meetings, however, in life we have to recognise that these happenstance events can be very real.
Ibbotson writes wonderful tales, full of detail and characterisation. YOu can smell the cooking in this one - the Christmas carp so loving prepared with just a pinch of Nutmeg, the Kipferl's baking and candles burning on the pine tree.
A highly recommended read.
Summary of The Star of Kazan
After twelve-year-old Annika, a foundling living in late nineteenth-century Vienna, inherits a trunk of costume jewelry, a woman claiming to be her aristocratic mother arrives and takes her to live in a strangely decrepit mansion in Germany.
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