Summary Full Book Summary Doctor Zhivago tells the story of Yury Zhivago, a man torn between his love for two women while caught in the tumultuous course of twentieth century Russian history. Yury's mother dies when he is still a young boy, and he is raised by his uncle Kolya.

Set between the 1905 Russian Revolution and the Second World War, Boris Pasternak’s novel Doctor Zhivago, first published in Italy in 1957, takes its name from its protagonist, Yuri Zhivago. The novel tells the story of Yuri Zhivago, a man torn between his love for two women while simultaneously attempting to navigate the tumultuous times of twentieth-century Russia.