Ancient Furies

Wealth and family privilege are no match for the brutal forward march of two armies intent on eliminating each other. As a teenager, Anastasia Saporito discovered just that truth as she and her family found themselves exiled, vulnerable, and no longer able to call on their societal standing and accumulated riches as the Soviet and German armies converged during World War II.

Saporito recounts in vivid detail the difficulties of her childhood as the daughter of White Russian aristocrats forced to flee their native Russia for refuge in Yugoslavia. In Ancient Furies, Saporito skillfully depicts her family, her own struggles as a girl coming of age in war-torn central Europe, and the devastation incurred as a result of Nazi actions toward civilian populations of occupied countries. Personal recollections form the basis of this memoir, but the trials and tribulations faced by this young woman shed light on the often-hidden experiences of the once-wealthy elite of central and Eastern Europe as the Nazi war machine tore much of that region asunder. Through her teenage self's words, Saporito brings a different civilian experience of World War II into the open.