Red Sky at Noon

The Moscow Trilogy, Book 3

By: Simon Sebag Montefiore

Narrated by: Simon Bubb

The stunning new novel from the New York Times best-selling author of The Romanovs and Jerusalem, set during an epic cavalry ride across the hot grasslands outside Stalingrad during the darkest times of World War II

"The black earth was already baking and the sun was just rising when they mounted their horses and rode across the grasslands towards the horizon on fire...." Imprisoned in the Gulags for a crime he did not commit, Benya Golden joins a penal battalion made up of Cossacks and convicts to fight the Nazis. He enrolls in the Russian cavalry, and on a hot summer day in July 1942, he and his band of brothers are sent on a suicide mission behind enemy lines - but is there a traitor among them? The only thing Benya can truly trust is his horse, Silver Socks, and that he will find no mercy in the onslaught of Hitler's troops as they push east.

Spanning 10 epic days, between Benya's war on the grasslands of southern Russia and Stalin's intrigues in the Kremlin, between Benya's intense affair with an Italian nurse and a romance between Stalin's daughter and a war correspondent, this is a sweeping story of passion, bravery, and survival - where betrayal is a constant companion, death just a heartbeat away, and love, however fleeting, offers a glimmer of redemption.

A London Times pick of the month.

©2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc. (P)2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Excellent story & performance!

A story of love, war, friendship & a great horse to bring it all together!

Surprised

I listened to this as a free offering on audible. It is well narrated, exciting and fascinating. Definitely high on my list of WW2 novels.

Montefiore's Best

Of the three Moscow trilogy novels, I think this is the best: it moves along at a good pace and covers many of the same issues as the other two trilogy novels - the cruel gulags and Stalin's whimsical and unforgiving purges grinding down anyone that gets caught up by them. This is War and Peace in its spirit, but set in WWII. Excellent use of ambiguity to define characters who have to make split second decisions about matters of life and death. Montefiore is a brilliant writer who uses his extensive knowledge of all matters Russian.

I highly recommend this novel.

Simon Bubb does a fine job of narrating this excellent novel.

Riveting storytelling

Story will keep you glued to your phone listening. The ending made me gasp out loud. Incredible inside view of life in the USSR under Stalin

Inspiring but flawed

Great listening engaging and largely based on historical events but a bit cheesy overly romantic

INTERESTING

If you read book no. one, “Sachenka”, I recommend following up with book two.
At the start of the book I was somewhat disappointed, but as you go along it becomes interesting and I am glad I stuck with it.
I think it does help if you have a knowledge of history, regarding WWII, Germany’s involvement against Russia.
Mr. Simon Bubb was a pleasure to listen to.
As always, my thanks to all involved, JK.

Interesting and we'll written

Extremely descriptive story with memorable characters. I am going to read more from this author!

Another fine book from this historian.

This time, covering an obscure event in World War 2, and does it very well, as I expected. Fine narration as well. Intend to find more books by this author to try out.

wow

What an amazing story even if it is fictorious. About love and war and the hardships people faced living in Russia during WWII

Great story

Sometimes cheesy, but compelling and sufficiently dark to give it credibility. I disagree with other reviewers that these are stock characters. I found the characters diverse and believable, with enough ambiguous morality in most of them to make them interesting and entertaining.