Perilous Beautiful World

In this exquisite historical odyssey, three ordinary people ensnared in World War I’s chaotic aftermath must fight to survive and hold on to their humanity—from the New York Times bestselling author of Z and A Good Neighborhood, inspired by her family's history.

1919:
Mathilde, a recently married young woman in a Russian shtetl south of Kyiv, is filled with hope for the life she is building and prays the civil war roiling her country will soon end. But one afternoon she returns home to a horrific event that shatters her life and forces her to make unthinkable choices.

Michael is an American soldier working as an interpreter and translator in frigid northern Russia. Dismayed that the troops there, who should have gone home after the armistice, are now caught up in Russia’s civil war, he angers his superior officer and is sent to the front lines. He soon finds himself in a firefight that will propel him into dangers of a very different kind.

Sunny, a parentless young boy living on the streets of Lvov, Poland, becomes untethered from the gang of kids who have been both his family and his protection since before memory. Now he must risk trusting someone new if he is to make it through what lies ahead.

Strangers at first, these three indomitable characters’ fates entwine in their life-or-death quests for refuge, family, and meaning.

For Mathilde, this means fleeing to America. But getting out, and getting in, will be no simple task, as the Great War’s effects spread across the globe and cripple immigration. Yet the stakes for her become dire; she must find a way. Her journey—and Michael’s, and Sunny’s—will be as surprising as it is harrowing.

Based on true events and the author’s family history, Perilous Beautiful World is a powerful, sweeping tale of courage, perseverance, and connection in a time when hope becomes the most perilous—yet necessary—act of all.