From Rome to Cork

By Finnian Cox

“My teacher suggested researching it after I asked if it was the same person. So, I did, and then I didn’t stop.”

Romanov is far from a common surname - so when a 12 year old Margherita Selicato spotted it in her history textbook, she was instantly reminded of the film ‘Anastasia’, a childhood favourite.

Wondering if it could be the same family, she chose to follow an unsure teacher’s advice of Googling it; 6 years later, the impact of this moment cannot be understated.

“I’ve joked with her since that her ‘famous last words’ opened a whole new chapter of my life, and it’s kind of altered the course of my teenage years,” says Margherita, laughing.

Now a published author at 18, Margherita’s book, ‘From Ekaterinburg to Askat' sees her fascination with the Romanovs meeting with her creativity, as she reimagines the siblings’ fate.

“There was naturally shock in Russia after their death, and the revolution. Obviously, it wasn’t a great system - I’m not going to sit here and pretend it was all roses and ponies for everyone involved,” says Margherita.

“You had the imperial, Tsar system, which is this really big thing that has been looming over your life. Then, suddenly it’s just gone, and you’re expected to forget about it. It’s a confusing place,” she says.

“I think I found that interesting, because most of my characters are teenagers in the book, so they don’t really know what’s going on - they are just trying to survive.”

Unfortunately for the Romanovs, who ruled in Russia from 1613 up until to the Communist revolution in 1917, survival wasn’t possible, and they were executed in 1918.

However, Margherita chose to reimagine this fate, creating a world where the Romanov children escaped. Her main goal, she says, was to give them some agency.

“Often it was a case of hey, they never got to do this, but in the book, they could have,” says Margherita. “Giving them that agency is liberating them from being images in a textbook.”“I think what gets lost in the history books is how teenagers were feeling at the time, and that’s kind of the best way for me to look at it, through their diaries.”

Her passion for the subject seems to run as deep as her knowledge on it - she’s consumed biographies, films, letters and even the siblings’ diaries in order to gain different perspectives on how they felt.

Though she orchestrated how their lives played out in the novel’s alternate history, she admits the Romanov children had just as big an influence on her.

“After reading so many biographies and quotes, I feel like I’ve picked up a lot of them,” she admits, laughing. “I found that, if not quoting them directly, I was quoting the gist of it.”

“I would say ‘why does this line sound like it’s Maria talking?’ But then I’d remember, I don’t know what Maria sounds like!”

In terms of literary inspiration, Margherita spends no time ruminating; from what I can tell, it’s not really a fair contest.

“It’s our lord and saviour Jane Austen,” she proclaims.

As I am no literary expert, I ask the published author in the room if she sees any Austen in her own writing. She agrees, and so thankfully I don’t embarrass myself with my lack of knowledge.

“I think that even through giving female characters agency, Jane Austen did a very new thing for her time, in that we can get in the mind of her characters,” says Margherita.

“It gives them this beautiful depth, and I try and do that with my characters.”

Originally hailing from Rome, Margherita is currently studying in UCC, as well as balancing the daunting task of book promotion.A month on from publishing, she says she is both happy with how things have worked out, and excited to see what’s next.

As for Cork, Margherita enthusiastically says she loves it. “I really like the size of the city, something that has become a running joke with my friends,” she adds.

“I went to Dublin last year and it’s a lovely city, but I felt like I was spying on the enemy camp,” she says, seemingly unaware of the brownie points this statement earns with possibly the entire county.

Margherita’s book, ‘From Ekaterinburg to Askat’ was published on 28 October, and is available in a number of bookshops.