Memoirs of Tsar Nicholas
In this unique novel, the author imagines a Russia with a different history and fate, as a nation with a "robust economy based on effective democratic institutions." It is also a historical romance novel, spending equal amounts of time on the main character's love life and the politics surrounding him.
It is rumination on what might have happened in Russia in 1917 and after if Nicholas II had been a different kind of ruler and if the Revolution had been quelled. The author follows actual events and incorporates real people for the most part, with new characters added for dramatic effect and to allow the narrative to follow its new path.
In this version of history, Nicholas marries the fictional Katya, a bright, down-to-earth Russian girl instead of the real life Princess Alix of Hesse, a German princess who ruled at his side as Empress Alexandra but was never accepted in her adopted country.
Our fictional Nicholas and Katya, working with a group of forward-looking people that they had gathered around them, are able to weather the revolution, escape the firing squad that awaited Nicholas and Alexandra, and go on to defeat the Bolsheviks and lay the foundation for democracy in Russia.
-- Robert Siskind