I Was Anastasia: A Novel

I Was Anastasia (2018) is a historical fiction novel by New York Times bestselling author Ariel Lawhon, whose other historical novels include Code Name Hélène (2020) and The Frozen River (2023). I Was Anastasia re-imagines the life of Anna Anderson, the most famous of the women who claimed to be Anastasia Romanov, who was the youngest daughter of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. Anastasia’s family was killed during the Bolshevik Revolution of 1918. While one timeline of the novel describes the Romanov family’s flight into exile in Siberia from Anastasia’s point of view, a second narrative moves backward in time over key events of Anna’s life. The novel explores themes of identity, memory, trauma, and the nature of storytelling. 

This guide refers to the hardcover edition published by Doubleday in 2018.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of illness, death, graphic violence, mental illness, animal death, cursing, physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual violence and harassment, self-harm, and suicidal ideation.

Language Note: The term “asylum” is preserved throughout, as it is historically and linguistically accurate to the period in which the text is set and essential to understanding the context of the novel.

Plot Summary

In the Prologue, Anna Anderson, one of the novel’s two protagonists, directly addresses the reader, telling them that they can judge who she truly is only after reading the whole book. The novel’s other protagonist is Anastasia, daughter of Tsar Nicholas II. The novel centers on the question of whether Anna is Anastasia, as she claims she is. The novel’s structure alternates between Anna’s narrative, which is narrated in reverse chronology beginning in 1970, and Anastasia’s story, which begins in 1917 and moves forward chronologically.

The novel begins with Anna in her seventies as she awaits the verdict in her decades-long legal battle to be recognized as Anastasia Romanov. However, the court case ends without a conclusive decision, citing the lack of evidence. Anna is resigned, unlike her American husband, Jack Manahan, a university professor, who is disappointed with the decision. Earlier scenes show Anna’s longtime friend and supporter, Gleb Botkin, encouraging her marriage of convenience to Jack so that she can reside in the United States. 

Anna’s narrative continues to unfold in reverse sequence, showing Anna’s previous home in a secluded cottage in the Black Forest of Germany. Maria Rasputin, daughter of Grigory Rasputin, is angry because Anna is avoiding her, and she persuades Anna’s friend, Prince Frederick, to clear her house and property while Anna is in the hospital. Feeling betrayed, Anna packs a bag to come to the US and brings four important items that are connected to the Romanovs: a photo album; an ivory chess set; a paper knife; and an icon of a Russian saint.

In the novel’s second timeline beginning in February 1917, Anastasia learns that the revolution against her father the tsar has been successful. The new Russian leader, Kerensky, imprisons the family inside their palace. They live there for several months, under guard. Their companions include a small staff of servants, including Pierre Gilliard, Anastasia’s tutor, and Botkin, a physician to Anastasia’s brother Alexey, who has hemophilia and was previously tended by the hated Grigory Rasputin. Botkin’s son, Gleb, is devoted to Anastasia. Now 16, Anastasia and her family board a train heading to Siberia. In Tobolsk, Siberia, the family once again lives under guard. Anastasia befriends a young soldier named Tomas and longs for escape. At the direction of her mother, she and her sister sew jewels into their clothing and underclothes, hoping to escape with them. The family learns that Kerensky’s government has been taken over by Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks, who believe that the Romanovs are enemies of the state.

Meanwhile, Anna’s story continues to move backward over the 1950s, showing that her claim to be legally recognized as the Grand Duchess Anastasia is undermined by Pierre Gilliard, who was Anastasia’s tutor. Gilliard believes Anna is an imposter. Her friend Prince Frederick finds her a home in the Black Forest in Germany that provides a refuge after Anna flees the bombing of her apartment in Hannover during World War II.

In the 1930s, Anna confronts the four Schanzkowska siblings, a Polish family that a private investigator hired by the Romanovs has located. While one sister insists Anna is their sister Franziska, the other siblings claim not to recognize Anna. Meanwhile, the Romanov family issues a declaration that they believe Anna is an imposter. Anna continues to fight for recognition, aided by supporters like Prince Frederick and Gleb Botkin.

Rewinding back in time, the novel shows Anna spending the late 1920s in New York City, living under the patronage of wealthy New Yorkers, including the socialite Annie Burr Jennings and later Xenia Leeds, a Romanov. Through Xenia, the Romanov family reaches out to Anna and promises to support her financially if she will retract her claim that she is Anastasia—however, Anna refuses. Though Anna attracts attention and sympathy, her erratic behavior leads Jennings to commit Anna to a psychiatric institution. 

Switching to Anastasia’s story in 1918, the novel shows that the Romanovs’ previous guards are replaced with the more extreme Bolsheviks, who move the family to Ekaterinburg. Because her brother Alexey is recovering from an injury, Anastasia and her two sisters, Olga and Tatiana, travel separately from their parents, who precede them. On the train, Olga and Tatiana are sexually assaulted by the Bolshevik soldiers, but Anastasia is protected by Tomas. In Ekaterinburg, the Romanovs are confined in Ipatiev House. Even her tutor Gilliard is not allowed to go with them.

Tomas wakes Anastasia in the middle of the night. He tells her that the guards plan to kill her family and says he can help her escape. Anastasia tries to warn her family, but it is too late. The Romanovs and their four remaining servants are executed in the cellar of Ipatiev House. Anastasia is still conscious when their bodies are transported and dumped in an open field. She hopes that Tomas has escaped.

Switching back to Anna’s narrative, the novel shows her living with the Baron von Kleist and his wife, Maria, in Germany in the 1920s. They arranged for her release from the Dalldorf Asylum after Anna claims to be Anastasia. Anna was staying at the asylum for two years. She was committed to Dalldorf after she attempted death by suicide by jumping into the Landwehr Canal in Berlin. Since she refused to give her name or identifying details, the staff at the asylum named her “Fräulein Unbekannt”—Miss Unknown. A fellow patient, Clara, thinks that Anna looks like one of the Romanov daughters.

The novel peels further back in time to show Anna in her boardinghouse in Berlin in 1920. She learns that Princess Irene, sister to the Empress Alexandra, seeks information regarding the Russian imperial family. Anna goes to the palace but is turned away by a guard. In despair, she jumps into the canal.

Eleven months earlier, Anna gives birth in a refugee camp. The child, a boy, is taken from her.

Several months before that, a Polish factory worker named Franziska Schanzkowska is working in a munitions factory during World War I. She has just received word that her fiancé was killed in the war, and she is pregnant. Distracted, Franziska drops a grenade with a loose pin and is injured in the resulting explosion.

In the Epilogue, Anna once again addresses the reader, explaining that she went along with the pretense of being Anastasia because others so badly wanted to believe that Anastasia was alive.