WINTERLAND is fine historical fiction about the life of a gymnast in the Soviet Union during the 1970s. The reader is meant to understand this as typical.

Anya is an eight-year-old girl living in Siberia. Her parents chose to live here in their zeal to support the great Soviet Union. Yet her mother has disappeared, and her disappearance becomes the great mystery running throughout this story.

When the Soviet Union chooses Anya for gymnastics training, although she is happy and excited, her life is taken over by the state as if she no longer belongs to her father. And her trainer cares more for how she represents the Soviet Union than he does for the life of this child. Her life is not hers. This is how she grows up.

Note that, although Anya herself is fiction, some of the other gymnasts in the story are real, and you may recognize their names. One of her friends, Elena, is based on an actual gymnast.

Although I tend to favor page turners, this book is not that. But it is so interesting and even touching in some parts that I give it high ratings.