The Star of Kazan - Tapa blanda

Annika never has a birthday - no one knows the date she was born. She celebrates her Found Day instead. For Annika was abandoned as a baby and found by a cook and a housemaid from Vienna. Her upbringing in the servants' quarters of the house of three eccentric professors means that at an early age she can bake and ice a three-tier cake, and polish parquet floors to perfection. One summer's evening a very old lady comes to stay with Annika's awful neighbours. The stories of her extraordinary life as a famous dancer are spellbinding. Especially the tale of the besotted Russian count, who gave her the legendary emerald, the Star of Kazan. Suddenly a glamorous stranger arrives at Annika's door. Her mother, after years of guilt and searching, has come to claim her. Annika is no servant but a Prussian aristocrat whose true home is a great castle. But at crumbling, spooky Spittal she discovers that all is not as it seems in the lives of her new-found family . . . Eva Ibbotson's hugely entertaining story is a timeless classic for readers young and old. Fans of JOURNEY TO THE RIVER SEA are in for an even more captivating treat in the eagerly awaited THE STAR OF KAZAN.

An enthralling and enchanting adventure set in turn of the century Vienna from the author of the bestselling "Journey to the River Sea".