Eva Stachniak: Female Friendship

Doubleday Canada Dept: By Eva Stachniak, Doubleday Canada, 440 pages, $25, according to Winnipeg Free Press. In fact, The Winter Palace is replete with gossip. A tale of power, intrigue and female friendship, it is also an insider's view of the Empress Catherine the Great of Russia, one of the most interesting rulers of the 18th century as seen through the unblinking eye of a servant and the Winter Palace "HISTORY is merely gossip." Toronto-based Eva Stachniak's riveting new novel brings to mind this assertion by the late British playwright Oscar Wilde. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.