"Imprisoned in the Gulags for a crime he did not commit, Benya Golden joins a penal battalion made up of Cossacks and convicts to fight the Nazis. He enrolls in the Russian cavalry, and on a hot summer day in July 1942, he and his band of brothers are sent on a suicide mission behind enemy linesbut is there a traitor among them? The only thing Benya can truly trust is his horse, Silver Socks, and that he will find no mercy in onslaught of Hitlers troops as they push East. Spanning ten epic days, between Benyas war on the grasslands of southern Russia and Stalins intrigues in the Kremlin, between Benyas intense affair with an Italian nurse and a romance between Stalins daughter and a war correspondent, this is a sweeping story of passion, bravery, and survivalwhere betrayal is a constant companion, death just a heartbeat away, and love, however fleeting, offers a glimmer of redemption. "--From publisher.