Vassily the Beautiful
This book is actually a clever adaption of the Russian fairy tale, 'Vasilisa the Beautiful', substituting men for women.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasilisa_the_Beautiful
"There was nothing left, nothing to look forward to but a slow and humiliating death. A snippet of poetry haunted him, 'then black despair the shadow of a starless night was thrown over the world in which I moved alone.'"
