Fiction informed by nonfiction, and nonfiction informed by fiction

Ivan is a lifelong reader and discoverer of the multiple ways that worlds, subjects, and people intersect and connect.

Ivan Obolensky draws from a variety of disciplines and literary influences to craft his richly layered fiction and nonfiction. His background of growing up amongst the 1% in New York has been complemented by a wide range of unique adventures in many parts of the world across all levels of society.

Overcoming fear has been a consistent theme throughout his work. He overcame a debilitating fear of flying by becoming a licensed pilot and concluded from the experience that learning, studying, and absorbing everything and anything about a subject can banish any anxieties about it.
‍
From then on, learning became a consistent passion that has spanned a vast amount of territory. The benefit to the reader is intelligent, compassionate, multi-genre fiction that makes for late night reading, and surprising nonfiction that addresses unexpected questions across many different fields.

One field of interest has been photography. To Ivan it is one more way to capture and share the enchantment and stories that surround us in this astonishing world.

Award-winning American series

Enter the Gothic
World of Rhinebeck

“The dark shadows by the cypress trees or the brooding marble statues could harbor all sorts of spirits, both friendly and unfriendly. The dark, silent emptiness could be a scary place to grow up in, and I was easily frightened.”

Percy, Eye of the Moon

Ivan Obolensky draws from a remarkable family legacy to craft his gothic mysteries. Inspired by ghost stories his father told him about his grandmother, Alice Astor—a noted philanthropist, Egyptologist, and friend of Aldous Huxley—Ivan transforms family lore into spellbinding fiction.

In his words

“The Eye of the Moon series started from a single fact: my grandmother, Alice Astor, died while reading an Egyptian Book of the Dead. That was unusual. Even more so was the February 1997 article in W Magazine, entitled ‘Black Mischief’. The author concluded that my grandmother may have been murdered. That possibility was so astonishing that I couldn’t help but imagine ways that it could be true. Who could have done it and why?

My idea had possibilities, but I needed more.

I decided to make the story about two friends who had fallen out years before and then grew back together as they worked out what had happened to Johnny's aunt, Lady Alice, who had died reading an Egyptian Book of the Dead.

The story is told from the point of view of Percy, the narrator. He is twitchy, and intelligent, but loyal and intuitive. His friend Johnny is flamboyant, brilliant, manipulative, and charismatic. One is light. One is dark.”