The Fountain of Tears

An alternative view of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin’s 600-line verse tale, The Fountain at Bakhchisaray comes to life in this spellbinding historical fiction novel. A tale of a Tatar khan’s impossible love for a captive Polish countess in his Crimean harem is interwoven with stories from the life of the poet Pushkin in 1821, exploring links between distance, imagination, and memory. It follows the young Polish countess Maria Potocka through her abduction from her father’s estate by Tatars during a slave raid, to her time languishing in the harem in the palace at Bakhchisaray, to her death before the Tatar khan could win her love. In his grief, the khan erects the Fountain of Tears, a monument to Maria that still stands.