Off to Russia on Tuesday. Trying to find some novels about Moscow and St. Petersburg to read on the plane and while traveling. Not Anna Karenina, more up to date including WW 11.
I recently read the well-written "City of Thieves" by David Benioff. It is set in WWII during the German siege of Leningrad.
I'd recommend Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita. An amazingly creative novel, set in Moscow in the 1930's.
We read the Amber Room by Steve Berry this summer and enjoyed it. Also read The Madonnas of Leningrad, very moving.