Maya & Natasha by Elyse Durham published 2025 by Mariner Books
Historical fiction is a hit with my monthly book club. I might even go so far as to say it’s the group’s preferred literary genre. The chance to encounter a created story, but one that is set in a real place and a real era with all of that times’ economic, political and sociological realities.
Elyse Durham’s Maya & Natasha is a delightful work of historical fiction. The novel follows two sisters, aspiring ballet dancers Maya and Natasha, as they navigate a mélange of challenging personal and professional forces. The Soviet Union in the middle of the twentieth century. The laborious, sheltered and unforgiving world of pre-professional ballet. Maturing into adulthood. An absence of biological parents. And perhaps the most nuanced force of all - not just sibling dynamics, but twin dynamics.
As the years pass for Maya and Natasha, the reader meets those that inhabit their orbit. Relationships develop and disintegrate. Revelations abound. As does youthful teenaged rebellion. There are mammoth disappointments, surprising opportunities and hints of betrayal.
Part II of the book ushers in the early 1960s and we quickly learn that fate has employed Maya and Natasha on very different paths. And the vibe of the writing mirrors that shift as well. Durham stays committed to historical fiction, yet at the same time manages to weave creative non-fiction into the work. New, real-life characters join the plot and one starts to speculate how these imagined and authentic worlds will collide. There’s a backdrop of true international crises, explored through the lens, perspective and experience of the characters. And as the book concludes with the shorter Part III, many things have come full circle for the twin protagonists.
Maya & Natasha succeeds on three fronts. First is the incredibly accurate picture Durham paints of the ballet universe. For those readers well-versed in that unique, and often odd arena, the book will come across nostalgically familiar (whether those remembrances are of joy or trauma or both) and the descriptive prose is quite poetic. References abound to true repertory works (those very familiar and those less so), rising stars of the time and worldwide dance institutions. Her knowledge and expertise of the form was a joy to discover.
Second, Durham crafted ballet into a container for the story, and that’s important for the novel’s prospective readership. It’s for more than just a dance audience. Undeniably, Maya & Natasha exists and unfolds within the proscenium arch that is ballet. But that container could have easily been something equally consuming: medicine, sports, film, academics. And I think those in similarly intense fields will relate deeply to Maya & Natasha.
Third, Maya & Natasha is an entertaining journey! Aside from a few predictable plot points and it being a tad too long, it’s a perfect summer read. So many dance books, while interesting, are packed with heady, dense material that takes time and energy to comb through. It’s refreshing to come across something so accessible and engaging. This reader was particularly pleased to get to chapter seventeen with all its references to San Francisco and the War Memorial Opera House!
