In The House of Special Purpose, John Boyne creates a path for readers to journey along into the turbulent time period of World War I with an often tempestuous view of the fall of Tsarist Russia.
Told from the perspective of Georgy, a teenage peasant in imperial Russia, whose impulsively heroic interruption of an assassination attempt saved the life of a Russian nobleman and catapulted him into the court of Nicholas II, the last tsar of Russia. Georgy recounts how he had to leave his sisters and abusive father behind to become the companion and bodyguard to the young Tsarevich Alexei.
Georgy is initially dazzled by the excessive wealth of the Romanov family and he quickly finds a distraction, consumed by thoughts of his first sweetheart, the Grand Duchess Anastasia. However, neither loyalty nor love can halt the terrible march of history. Even if Georgy can avoid the scheming Rasputin, who sees Georgy as a tool to influence the next Tsar, the Bolshevist Revolution looms on the horizon, ready to rob him of his love, livelihood and virtue.
Boyne intricately weaves his story around history, simultaneously so vivid and realistic, that it is difficult to remember if one is reading historical fiction and not the memoir of an ordinary yet thoroughly honourable man. While his peasant life, lack of education and youth make the teenaged Georgy as naive as Bruno from Boyne’s The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, he is by nature an honest, steadfast and intelligent man. While his pride and adolescent need to belong occasionally leads him astray, his foibles are relatable, and Boyne shows us how Georgy matures through decades marked as much by tragedy and grief as by love and family.
While Nicholas II’s reign was hardly blameless or bloodless, Boyne heightens readers’ sympathies for the doomed Romanovs by focusing on their family dynamic. Imperious and cold though the Tsaritsa may be toward servants, her protective instincts toward her haemophiliac son give her the same passion as any mother with an endangered child. Georgy, raised to believe in the Tsar’s divine right, never focuses on the less savoury aspects of the Tsar’s reign, seeing instead a tired, fatherly ruler trying to remain stalwart in the face of overthrow and execution. Most importantly, the romance between Georgy and Anastasia infuses the story with simple tenderness as the young couple discover the innocent thrill of touching hands and meeting in secret to steal chaste kisses. While the first love angle is bittersweet due to the sheer impossibility of a happily ever after, readers will find their sympathies belong completely to the young lovers.
Scenes from various phases of Georgy’s later marriage to Zoya are equally affecting as Georgy proves that his early experiences forged the strength and loyalty necessary to bind him to his wife in the face of deep personal rifts – and even death itself. Though Georgy walks a thorny path, his life story brims with adventure, history, loss and his unfailing hope for a better ending to every story. A testament to human will in the face of adversity, Boyne’s narrative will break a tiny piece of your heart one moment and bring a triumphant smile to your face the next. As enthralling and intricate as a Fabergé egg, The House of Special Purpose is a rare treasure readers will savour.
The House of Special Purpose is out in all good bookstores from April 2, 2013.