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A Novel
by Juhea Kim
Book Reviewed by:A once-famous ballerina faces a final choice—to return to the world of Russian dance that nearly broke her, or to walk away forever—in this incandescent novel of redemption and love.
On a White Night in 2019, prima ballerina Natalia Leonova returns to St. Petersburg two years after a devastating accident that stalled her career. Once the most celebrated dancer of her generation, she now turns to pills and alcohol to numb the pain of her past.
She is unmoored in her old city as the ghosts of her former life begin to resurface: her loving but difficult mother, her absentee father, and the two gifted dancers who led to her downfall.
One of those dancers, Alexander, is the love of her life, who transformed both Natalia and her art. The other is Dmitri, a dark and treacherous genius. When the latter offers her a chance to return to the stage in her signature role, Natalia must decide whether she can again face the people responsible for both her soaring highs and darkest hours.
Painting a vivid portrait of the Russian ballet world, where cutthroat ambition, ever-shifting politics, and sublime artistry collide, City of Night Birds unveils the making of a dancer with both profound intimacy and breathtaking scope. Mysterious and alluring, passionate and virtuosic, Juhea Kim's second novel is an affecting meditation on love, forgiveness, and the making of an artist in a turbulent world.
Overture
Call me a sinner,
Mock me maliciously:
I was your insomnia,
I was your grief.
—ANNA AKHMATOVA, "I HAVEN'T COVERED THE LITTLE WINDOW" (1916)
And it seemed to me those fires
Were about me till dawn.
And I never learnt—
The colour of those eyes.
Everything was trembling, singing;
Were you my friend or enemy,
And winter was it, or summer?
—ANNA AKHMATOVA, "FRAGMENT" (1959)
I FILL MY CUP WITH VODKA. IT TASTES OF THE STRANGE LONGING PECULIAR to flying into one's old city at midnight.
Outside the rounded window of the plane, the lights of St. Petersburg glimmer through the clouds. I remember then that it is the White Nights. Descending from the gray heights, the earth looks more like the night sky than the sky itself, and I have the brief sensation of falling toward a star field. I close my eyes, breathe, and reopen them slowly. The city is utterly familiar and unknown at the same time, like the ...
With a novel that feels raw and intimate and lived in, Juhea Kim captures the ruthless world of Russian ballet, where dancers are governed by artistry and precision. Inhabiting the psyche of someone so disciplined and driven to perfection is a fascinating exercise, one that Kim explores expertly throughout the novel, taking the reader on a whirlwind journey through the competitive dance scene.City of Night Birds is a worthwhile exploration of artistry, discipline, selfhood, and a determination to defy one's physical limitations...continued
Full Review
(551 words)
(Reviewed by Rachel Hullett).
Jason Mott, National Book Award-winning author of Hell of a Book
A beautifully crafted must read. City of Night Birds is a book that lingers long after the final pages have come and gone. Meng Jin, author of Self-Portrait with Ghost and Little Gods
Shimmering, seductive characters dance across the pages of City of Night Birds, immersing you in the world of a prima ballerina fulfilling her most beautiful and terrible ambitions. In this absorbing and passionate novel, Juhea Kim writes with fierce emotional intelligence about the darkness and desire that drive art and love, asking, What does it take to live a life beyond your wildest dreams? Rachel Lyon, author of Fruit of the Dead and Self-Portrait with Boy
An ecstatic künstlerroman—meticulously researched, brutally frank, and deliciously glamorous, City of Night Birds enraptures as thoroughly as the ballerina at its beating heart. The artistry possessed by this novel's sublimely gifted heroine is rivaled only by that of her author. Brava, Juhea Kim!City of Night Birds centers on a performance of Giselle, which a world-famous ballerina is going to perform as her first foray back to the stage after a forced hiatus. Giselle is a romantic ballet in two acts that tells the story of a German peasant girl from the countryside. Giselle falls in love with a nobleman, Albrecht, who has disguised himself as the peasant Loys. The first act chronicles the courtship between Giselle and Loys, as the jealous woodsman Hilarion, himself in love with Giselle, sets out to prove Loys's deception. Hilarion eventually uncovers that not only is Loys really Albrecht, he is also already engaged to Bathilde, a friend of Giselle. Heartbroken, Giselle stabs herself with Albrecht's sword and dies.
The ...
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