REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK "This story left me thinking about the ways we overcome setbacks and
redefine what truly matters." - Reese Witherspoon (Reese’s Book Club December '24 Pick) A
once-famous ballerina faces a final choice—to return to the world of Russian dance that nearly
broke her or to walk away forever—in this incandescent novel of redemption and love On a White
Night in 2019 prima ballerina Natalia Leonova returns to St. Petersburg two years after a
devastating accident that stalled her career. Once the most celebrated dancer of her generation
she now turns to pills and alcohol to numb the pain of her past. She is unmoored in her old
city as the ghosts of her former life begin to resurface: her loving but difficult mother her
absentee father and the two gifted dancers who led to her downfall. One of those dancers
Alexander is the love of her life who transformed both Natalia and her art. The other is
Dmitri a dark and treacherous genius. When the latter offers her a chance to return to the
stage in her signature role Natalia must decide whether she can again face the people
responsible for both her soaring highs and darkest hours. Painting a vivid portrait of the
Russian ballet world where cutthroat ambition ever-shifting politics and sublime artistry
collide City of Night Birds unveils the making of a dancer with both profound intimacy and
breathtaking scope. Mysterious and alluring passionate and virtuosic Juhea Kim’s second novel
is an affecting meditation on love forgiveness and the making of an artist in a turbulent
world.
