ALEXEI and RASPUTIN - Book Signing

Brandywine Hundred, Del. —

Aisle Say columnist Greer Firestone will be at Borders Books on Concord Pike July 17 to meet readers and sign his historical novel Alexei and Rasputin.

He wrote the book after an attempt to turn the history and drama of Nicholas and Alexandra into a rock opera failed, he quips.

“I had been a Russian History minor at the University of Delaware and was fascinated by the compelling characters and cataclysmic events surrounding the end of the 300-year Romanov dynasty of Russia," he says.

Alexei and Rasputin

What: book signing with author and Aisle Say columnist Greer Firestone

Where: Borders Books, Concord Pike, Wilmington

When: July 17, 2 p.m.

producer@delaware.net 302-494-3133

Think Nicholas, Alexandra, the four enchanting Grand Duchesses, World War I, the Russian Revolution, and at the center of all these world-changing events was the 14-year-old Alexei, the heir and hemophiliac.

“Hemophilia was a death sentence before hemoglobin. Only Rasputin, 'The Mad Monk' could staunch the flow of blood during a hemophiliac attack,” he says.

The book was written with middle school children in mind, Firestone says, for that was Alexei's age when he and his family were assassinated by Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin.

The author will read excerpts from the book, followed by a question and answer time.