Gorgito’s Ice Rink
Gorgito's Ice Rink was runner up in Writing Magazine's 2015 Self-Published Book of the Year Awards.
Two small boys grieving for lost sisters — torn between family and other loves. Can keeping a new promise make up for breaking an old one?
When Gorgito Tabatadze sees his sister run off with a soldier, he is bereft. When she disappears into Stalin’s Gulag system, he is devastated. He promises their mother on her death-bed he will find the missing girl and bring her home; but it is to prove an impossible quest.
Forty years later, Gorgito, now a successful businessman in post-Soviet Russia, watches another young boy lose his sister to a love stronger than family. When a talented Russian skater gets the chance to train in America, Gorgito promises her grief-stricken brother he will build an ice-rink in Nikolevsky, their home town, to bring her home again.
With the help of a British engineer, who has fled to Russia to escape her own heartache, and hindered by the local Mayor who has his own reasons for wanting the project to fail, can Gorgito overcome bureaucracy, corruption, economic melt-down and the harsh Russian climate in his quest to build the ice-rink and bring a lost sister home? And will he finally forgive himself for breaking the promise to his mother?
A story of love, loss and broken promises. Gorgito's story, told through the eyes of the people whose lives he touched.
Purchase Links
My website page: http://elizabethducieauthor.co.uk/book/gorgitos-ice-rink/
Kindle universal link: https://geni.us/3OHR
Until 14th October, Gorgito’s Ice Rink is only 99 p/c in all territories.
When Elizabeth Ducie had been working in the international pharmaceutical industry
for nearly thirty years, she decided she’d like to take a break from technical writing—text books,
articles and training modules—and write for fun instead. She started by writing travel pieces, but
soon discovered she was happier, and more successful, writing fiction. In 2012, she gave up the day
job, and started writing full-time. She has published four novels, three collections of short stories and
a series of manuals on business skills for writers.
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Excerpt 1: Moscow, April 2005
Excerpt 1: Moscow, April 2005
Context: The main thread of the book runs between 1995 and 2006. The prologue presents a scene from 2005, where British engineer, Emma Chambers, is attending a funeral in Moscow.
Emma Chambers slipped between the oak doors into the hushed interior. The air, thick with incense, grabbed at her throat and threatened to bring back the tears she'd been fighting all morning. From a hidden room in the corner of the church, male voices undulated in Gregorian chant. Emma studied the icons on the walls and pillars. This was one of the new Moscow churches, built with donations from Russian émigrés in America. No dark wood or smoke-blackened surfaces here. Walls glowed with sour-cream paint and the icons were sparkling confections of enamel and glass.
Emma gazed up at the gold-encrusted cupola where pale April sunlight struggled to enter through tiny windows. She glanced around at the other people in the congregation. Several nodded when they saw her looking their way; a couple of the women smiled and gave little waves.
Finally, she took a deep breath and turned to look at the sight she’d been avoiding since she entered the building. The ornate urn surrounded by flowers looked so alone, resting on a table in front of the altar screen. To one side a large photograph was propped on an easel and across the bottom ran the words: GORGITO EVGENYVICH TABATADZE, 1940 to 2005.
The man in the picture seemed to be looking straight at her. The hairline receded more than she remembered, but the curls and bushy moustache were still jet black. The eyes mirrored the slight smile on his lips. They signalled a private joke—or maybe something amusing just behind the photographer’s shoulder.
‘Oh, Gorgito,’ Emma whispered, ‘I’m so very sorry.’
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