Star of Kazan

_The Star of Kazan_ by Eva Ibbotson
The Star of Kazan is a gorgeous dream of a novel. It tells the story of Annika, a foundling raised by two women, Ellie and Sigrid, who are servants in the wealthy household of three eccentric sibling professors in Vienna. She spends her time in school or helping Ellie in the kitchen, running errands for the professors and playing with her friends, Stefan and Pauline.
Her love for Vienna runs deep and Ibbotson’s descriptions of the city are moving and passionate.
Annika’s life is turned upside down when her long lost aristocratic mother appears on their doorstep. While she had always dreamt of her mother coming for her, she had not thought ahead to what it would mean and how her circumstances would change. Her mother takes her home to the crumbling family estate in Germany, where Annika befriends a servant boy named Zed, who helps to solve the mystery behind her new family’s sudden appearance in her life.
The characters that bustle about Annika's neighborhood in Vienna are so wonderfully drawn and fully rounded that you are as sad to leave a Annika. By the end of the novel, Ibbotson has created such a sense of longing for it's beauty, serenity (and pastry) that you are ready to immigrate to Austria immediately. The Star of Kazan is a wonderful tale of love, family and belonging that has taken its rightful place in my list of favorites.