Audiobook The Torrents of Spring

Vladimir Petrovitch is sixteen years old in the summer of 1833, living with his distant parents near the Neskutchny gardens in Moscow. He falls immediately and helplessly in love with his new neighbour, the twenty-one-year-old Princess Zinaïda Zasyekin, after seeing her playfully bossing several older suitors. Drawn into her impoverished yet magnetic household, Vladimir becomes a regular guest, enduring the chaotic games of forfeits and the cruel games Zinaïda plays with her admirers' affections. He is desperately jealous of her other suitors, particularly the hussar Byelovzorov and the smooth Count Malevsky, but he remains entirely devoted to her, willing to suffer any humiliation for a kind look or a touch of her hand. As the weeks pass, Vladimir begins to notice strange undercurrents in the household, including Zinaïda's tense relationship with her mother and a mysterious, commanding presence that seems to dominate Zinaïda herself. The narrative builds toward a painful revelation about Zinaïda's true affections and the heartbreaking maturity that comes with the end of youthful illusions.