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Start giftingWhite Blood
This audiobook uses AI narration.
We’re taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.
Learn moreThe son of an English father and a Russian mother, Charlie Doig is a big man—big in stature, in spirit, and in sexual appetites. A naturalist, he roughs it around the world collecting specimens for museums. In 1914, he is on a mission for the Academy of Science in Russia when war breaks out. His pay is stopped and his companion goes off to enlist. Doig, however, has no intention of volunteering to be killed, so he returns to his family’s home near Smolensk and to the woman he loves, his cousin Elizaveta.
At first, their home remains untouched by outside events, and the familiar ways continue. But imperial Russia is doomed, along with all the old certainties. Trapped by the snow with Doig and Elizaveta are a motley collection of old aristocrats and two soldiers seeking refuge—one of whom, Doig fears, is a Bolshevik out to destroy them all.
James Fleming was born in London in 1944, the fourth in a family of nine children. He read history at Oxford and has been variously an accountant, farmer, forester, and bookseller. A nephew of Ian Fleming (of James Bond fame), he is the author of two previous novels, The Temple of Optimism and Thomas Gage. He lives in Scotland.
Simon Vance is the critically acclaimed narrator of approximately 400 audiobooks, winner of 27 AudioFile Earphones Awards, and a 12-time Audie Award-winner. He won an Audie in 2006 in the category of Science Fiction and was named the 2011 Best Voice in Biography and History and in 2010 Best Voice in Fiction by AudioFile magazine.
Vance has been a narrator for the past 25 years, and also worked for many years as a BBC Radio presenter and newsreader in London. Some of his best-selling and most praised audiobook performances include Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Hilary Mantel’s Bring Up the Bodies (an Audie award-winner), Ian Fleming’s Casino Royale, Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, Patrick O’Brian’s Master and Commander series (all 21 titles), the new productions of Frank Herbert’s original Dune series, and Rob Gifford’s China Road (an AudioFile 2007 Book of the Year). Vance lives near San Francisco with his wife and two sons.
Reviews
“A historical novel with the right kind of hero: virile, ruthless, adventurous.”
“[A] meticulously researched act of reconstruction…The narrative, the dialogue and the intensity of Doig’s emotions drive the story to a savage climax that reads like a modern thriller. It is the best sort of historical novel.”
“I’m grateful to Fleming for reminding me just how exciting a good novel can be.”
“Moving and gripping…Fleming captures the contradictions of the period and the rich flavours of elegance and terror compellingly. This is a tense, thrilling, and at times darkly comic novel with a complex central character who, in the best passages, bursts off the page.”
“Crackling, flamboyant…funny, sad, and magical.”
“Charlie Doig…is an unforgettable character…From the first chapters showcasing lusty encounters to the closing chapters ablaze with the Russian Revolution’s gore, this work is energetic, lavishly expressive, and a great read. That it also pulses with historic accuracy is a reader’s bonus.”
“Suspenseful…richly told…moving from the wildly entertaining travelogue that opens the tale to the cat-and-mouse game among the snowbound to an out-and-out thriller as Charlie witnesses firsthand the horror of Bolsheviks ‘forging a new kind of hell.’”
“The action sequences virtually sing with energy, and the novel’s blistering pace never lets up for a moment. Fleming is indeed skilled, and the book is a pulse-pounding read. But, like Charlie’s innumerable paramours, you may hate yourself in the morning for having enjoyed it so much.”
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