Lara: The Untold Love Story That Inspired Doctor Zhivago. Anna Pasternak

      

       COPYRIGHT

      William Collins

      An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers

      1 London Bridge Street

      London SE1 9GF

       WilliamCollinsBooks.com

      This eBook first published in Great Britain by William Collins in 2016

      Copyright © Anna Pasternak 2016

      Anna Pasternak asserts the moral right to

      be identified as the author of this work

      A catalogue record for this book is

      available from the British Library

      Cover image © Ullstein Bild/Getty

      Interior images courtesy of the author unless otherwise attributed

      Map and family tree © Martin Brown

      All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

      Source ISBN: 9780008156787

      Ebook Edition © August 2016 ISBN: 9780008156800

      Version: 2017-03-27

       DEDICATION

      In loving memory of my mother,

      Audrey Pasternak

       EPIGRAPH

      Writers can be divided into two types: meteors and fixed stars. The first produces a momentary effect: you gaze up and cry ‘Look!’ – and they vanish forever. Whereas fixed stars are unchanging, they stand firm in the firmament, shine by their own light and influence all ages equally; they belong to the universe. But it is precisely because they are so high that their light usually takes so many years to reach the eyes of the dwellers on earth.

      Arthur Schopenhauer

      It is not for nothing that you stand at the end of my life, my secret, forbidden angel, under the skies of war and turmoil, you who arose at its beginning under the peaceful skies of childhood.

      Yury Zhivago to Lara, Doctor Zhivago

      CONTENTS

       Cover

       Title Page

       Copyright

       Dedication

       Epigraph

       Map

       Family Tree

       Prologue: Straightening Cobwebs

       1. A Girl from a Different World

       2. Mother Land and Wonder Papa

       3. The Cloud Dweller

       4. Cables under High Tension

       5. Marguerite in the Dungeon

       6. Cranes Over Potma

       7. A Fairy Tale

       8. The Italian Angel

       9. The Fat is in the Fire

       10. The Pasternak Affair

       11. A Beast at Bay

       12. The Truth of Their Agony

       Epilogue: Think of Me Then

       Notes

       Select Bibliography

       Acknowledgements and Note on Sources

       Picture Section

       Index

       About the Publisher

      

      

      PROLOGUE

       Straightening Cobwebs

      It is almost impossible, by today’s