I have been lusting after this book for at least three years:
The Tsarevich, child martyr
by Princess Eugenie of Greece
It's a biography of Aleksei Nikolaevich Romanov, heir to the Russian throne, including his last diary and a passel of rare letters exchanged by the imperial family in April and May of 1918. Thanks to a kind soul in Austria, I've had access to photocopies of the juciest bits since 2006, but I still wanted a full copy all my own. Trouble was, every time one surfaced, it was upwards of $40, plus overseas shipping. Then lo and behold, in a moment of idleness last Friday I logged onto bookfinder.com and there was a copy for sale in Pennsylvania for ELEVEN DOLLARS. I pounced, and now it's mine, all mine!
There's just one problem: I don't know French.
On the plus side, I seem to have a knack for inadvertently stumbling across killer deals on impossible-to-find books, so at least I don't end up paying a truckload for books I can't even read. Next in my crosshairs:
The Tsar's Children, by Nina Bonetskaya
Sorrowful Angel, by Sergey Fomin
