The Champagne Wagon

<p>Young British miner Harry Speares is no admirer of Josef Stalin.</p><p>But when, in the late 1930s, his communist father Joseph is invited to work at the headquarters of Moscow¿s global subversive network, the Comintern, he reluctantly accompanies him - lured by promises of an education denied him at home.</p><p>In the Hotel Lux, foreign communist leaders live alongside exiled revolutionary fighters, teachers, writers and spies. Here, Harry meets Rosa Zander, a beguiling German woman who verses him in the mysterious rites of his new home. Rooms hum with debate, laughter and music. Children play in the corridors. But for Harry, the outsider, there is something unsettling about those ¿believers¿ so set on remaking the world.</p><p>As the threat from Nazi Germany escalates, Stalin turns against his loyal serv