Ravenscraig
by Sandi Krawchenko Altner
Wonderful...Welcome to Downton Abbey and Upstairs Downstairs with a Winnipeg twist.
-Ron Robinson, Winnipeg Free Press
Winner of the 2012 Carol Shields Book Award, Ravenscraig, by Sandi Krawchenko Altner, reveals the secrets and lies that tie two families together. Rupert Willows buries his cruel past and schemes his way to wealth and power. Zev Zigman, a devout Jew, mounts a desperate struggle to bring his family out of czarist Russia to the New World and put down roots in what is to become Winnipeg’s famed North End.
Pitching rich against poor in a brawling, raucous frontier city in the early 1900s, Ravenscraig brings to life the daily challenges of the booming population. Poverty, typhoid, prostitution scandals, and the Titanic grip the lives of the two families as they become entwined in each other’s worlds.
Nothing is more important to Rupert J. Willows than the image he has built to hide the deep secret of his true identity. A master manipulator, the ruthless and charismatic Rupert buys his way into the upper class when he purchases the opulent mansion, Ravenscraig Hall. It is the turn of the 20th century in one of the fastest growing cities in North America. True power is within Rupert’s grasp as long as his secret stays buried.
Malka Zigman is a survivor. Orphaned in London, she sails to Canada to join her Uncle Zev and his family. With family resources stretched thin, Malka takes a risk. Armed with an English accent that belies her Jewish roots, she reinvents herself as Maisie Rosedale to gain entrance to the exclusive world of “the English” as the new maid at Ravenscraig Hall.
-Ron Robinson, Winnipeg Free Press
Winner of the 2012 Carol Shields Book Award, Ravenscraig, by Sandi Krawchenko Altner, reveals the secrets and lies that tie two families together. Rupert Willows buries his cruel past and schemes his way to wealth and power. Zev Zigman, a devout Jew, mounts a desperate struggle to bring his family out of czarist Russia to the New World and put down roots in what is to become Winnipeg’s famed North End.
Pitching rich against poor in a brawling, raucous frontier city in the early 1900s, Ravenscraig brings to life the daily challenges of the booming population. Poverty, typhoid, prostitution scandals, and the Titanic grip the lives of the two families as they become entwined in each other’s worlds.
Nothing is more important to Rupert J. Willows than the image he has built to hide the deep secret of his true identity. A master manipulator, the ruthless and charismatic Rupert buys his way into the upper class when he purchases the opulent mansion, Ravenscraig Hall. It is the turn of the 20th century in one of the fastest growing cities in North America. True power is within Rupert’s grasp as long as his secret stays buried.
Malka Zigman is a survivor. Orphaned in London, she sails to Canada to join her Uncle Zev and his family. With family resources stretched thin, Malka takes a risk. Armed with an English accent that belies her Jewish roots, she reinvents herself as Maisie Rosedale to gain entrance to the exclusive world of “the English” as the new maid at Ravenscraig Hall.
