White Gardenia cover art

White Gardenia

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White Gardenia

By: Belinda Alexandra
Narrated by: Deidre Rubenstein
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About this listen

 Beginning in a small village on the Chinese-Russian border in the final days of World War II, White Gardenia tells the story of a mother and daughter separated by war. In a district of the city of Harbin, a haven for white Russian families since Russia's Communist revolution, Alina Kozlova must make a heartbreaking decision if her only child, Anya, is to live. White Gardenia sweeps across cultures and continents, from the glamorous nightclubs of Shanghai to the harshness of Cold War Soviet Russia in the 1960s, from a desolate island in the Pacific Ocean to a new life in post-war Australia. Both mother and daughter must make sacrifices, but is the price of survival too high? Most importantly of all, will they ever find each other again?©2002 Belinda Alexandra (P)2003 Bolinda Publishing Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction China War Russia

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Critic reviews

"Depicts vividly the powerful lifelong bond between mothers and daughters." (Paullina Simons)
"A passionate and powerful family saga." (The Australian Women's Weekly)
"One of our great storytellers." (The Sunday Telegraph)
"Deidre Rubenstein's well-modulated contralto voice brings empathy and compassion to Alexandra's first novel, loosely based on the true story of a White Russian mother and daughter forced to flee China at the outbreak of WWII. Rubenstein's narrative style, low-key and perfectly enunciated, conveys the struggle to survive and the passion for life that Anya exemplifies. As a refugee, Anya moves from Shanghai to the Philippines, and finally, to Australia, so many different accents and speech patterns are used by Rubenstein to portray the people Anya encounters. Her steady pace and ability to communicate emotions to listeners complement this powerful dramatization as it spans the decades." (AudioFile Magazine)
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Love this author but found her Russian heroine harder to identify with than her other book's main characters -- put it down to the character's Russian emotionalism - she seemed to cry at the drop of a hat. Absolutely loved her description of post-war immigration to Australia... as someone who emigrated in early '70's to Oz, four or five decades on from the story, found that little had changed in the welcome anyone from 'outside' Australia received. But like the main character, found so so much to love about the country.

Great portrayal of Oz post-war emigrant view

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Too long and way too dramatic, every situation,even simple ones, is dressed up in gaspingly high drama. 100 words when 5 would do. I found it exhausting.

I also found it odd that it was so loaded towards the refugees discomforts but never one comment of gratitude towards their rescuers or to Australia for taking in the refugees - I’ve never been to Australia but any country that rescues other human beings deserves applause and gratitude for its consideration & care, it’s gift of such opportunity & freedom.
But it lacked generosity of thought towards those kind people, expressed no gratitude -it just didn’t figure. I found that made it a strangely self-centred novel.

Very loooong

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Firstly the excessive graphic descriptive detail was totally unnecessary The overly romanticism of Russian aristocrat who oozed class and blue blood Totally ridiculous marriage storyline I found myself so agitated The narration when accented was good but over cooked at times Not for me

Poorly written novel

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