Despite the Falling Snow

Finished January 10
Despite the Falling Snow by Shamim Sarif

This novel moves back and forth between late 2000/early 2001 and the late '50s/1960 and the cities Boston and Moscow. In the more modern time period Alexander is in negotiations to sell his catering company to Melissa, when he meets Melissa's mother and begins finally thinking about a new love. His artist niece Lauren gives him a gift that reawakens the past.
In late 50s Moscow, Khrushchev is in power and making changes, Alexander works for the government and meets the love of his life Katya. But Katya has a secret that may endanger them both.
When Alexander came to America and Katya died back in Moscow, Alexander built a new life for itself, but never learned the truth of Katya's fate. When Lauren returns to Moscow determined to find the truth, she gets more than she bargained for, and a truth Alexander may find difficult to face.
A love story, a tragedy, a story of new hope, a great read.