The Star of Kazan

by EvaIbbotson (Author)

• Used

  Unabridged
  2004

  $3.25

  In a tiny alpine church, on a June day in 1897, an abandoned baby girl is found by a middle-aged cook from Vienna. So begins the unusual childhood of Annika, brought up in the house of three eccentric professors by their two domestic servants. By the age of seven she can bake and ice a three-tiered cake and polish parquet floors to perfection. Her life in this golden city of music, fabulous food, and the beautiful Lippizana stallions who dance before the Emperor Franz Joseph is greatly blessed - until her unknown mother tracks her down and comes to claim her...Here is another Ibbotson masterpiece of wonderful adventure, packed with dozens of unforgettable characters who weave their way through a faultless, intricate plot of enthralling events - sometimes hilarious, sometimes bleak, but always marvellously entertaining. It offers every reader who loved Journey To The River Sea an enchanting new world of fictional riches. It is a timeless classic, for readers young and old.

• Used

  Paperback
  2004

  $4.60

  Annika never has a birthday - no one knows the date she was born. She celebrates her Found Day instead. For Annika was abandoned as a baby and found by a cook and a housemaid from Vienna. Her upbringing in the servants' quarters of the house of three eccentric professors means that at an early age she can bake and ice a three-tier cake, and polish parquet floors to perfection. One summer's evening a very old lady comes to stay with Annika's awful neighbours. The stories of her extraordinary life as a famous dancer are spellbinding. Especially the tale of the besotted Russian count, who gave her the legendary emerald, the Star of Kazan.

  Suddenly a glamorous stranger arrives at Annika's door. Her mother, after years of guilt and searching, has come to claim her. Annika is no servant but a Prussian aristocrat whose true home is a great castle. But at crumbling, spooky Spittal she discovers that all is not as it seems in the lives of her new-found family . . .

  Eva Ibbotson's hugely entertaining story is a timeless classic for readers young and old. Fans of JOURNEY TO THE RIVER SEA are in for an even more captivating treat in the eagerly awaited THE STAR OF KAZAN.