Finding Katerina M. — Elisabeth Elo

Natalie March is a successful surgeon enjoying a busy life in Washington DC. As her demanding career has left little time for friends or romance, her deepest relationship is with her mother, Vera March, a Russian immigrant and MS patient confined to a rehab. Vera is haunted by the fact that her Ukrainian parents were sent to the gulag, Stalin's notorious network of labor camps, when she was just a baby. All her life she has presumed that they perished there along with millions of other Russian citizens. Natalie would do anything to heal her mother's psychic pain: it's the one wound that she, a doctor, cannot mend.

When a young Russian dancer comes to Natalie's office claiming to be her cousin, and providing details about her grandmother that no stranger could know, Natalie must face a surprising truth: her grandmother, Katarina Melnikova, is still very much alive. Natalie is thrilled to think that her Russian relatives are reaching out and that Vera may be able to reunite with her mother after so many years. In fact, Saldana has a darker motive for making contact. She pleads for Natalie's help to defect, and Natalie soon finds herself caught in a web of shocking family secrets that will pit her against both the Russian FSB and people within her own government. 

How far will Natalie go to find Katarina M. and satisfy her mother's deepest wish? Masterfully plotted and beautifully written, FINDING KATARINA M. takes the reader on an extraordinary journey across Siberia―to reindeer herding camps, Russian prisons, Sakha villages, and parties with endless vodka toasts―while it explores what it means to be loyal to your family, your country, and yourself.