When Jews living in the Soviet bloc found their way to the West at the end of the 20th century, who would have guessed that this movement would eventually spark a new wave of Jewish emigré literature? The children of these new refugees watched their families – cut-off from religious practice for almost a century by Communist rule and yet plainly identified as Jews – struggle to understand and find a place in a new world. Consider the differences in emigrating from Eastern Europe in the 1980s instead of the 1880s, the source of the first great wave of Jewish-American writing. Their work represents a vital and important new phase in Jewish writing. For more discussion of this phenomenon, see Tablet's "Russian Jewish American Lit Goes Boom!"
• Panic in a Suitcase: A Novel • Yelena Akhtiorskaya • 2014 • Lit Akhtiorskaya
Pursuing the American Dream once meant giving up everything, but does the dream still work if the past refuses to grow distant and mythical, remaining alarmingly within reach? ... [An] exceptional debut has been hailed not only as the great novel of Brighton Beach but as a “breath of fresh air … [and] a testament to Akhtiorskaya’s wit, generosity, and immense talent as a young American author” (NPR).
• The Betrayers: A Novel • David Bezmozgis • 2015 • Lit Bezmozgis
"When was the last time you tore through a work of literary fiction at the rate of a Tom Clancy thriller? ... A novel of ideas and an engrossing story?" New York Times Book Review. "[D]eft plotting, atmospheric scene-setting and limpid style remain assured. Each page is a gem, its prose carefully weighed and polished."--The Economist
• The Free World : A Novel • David Bezmozgis • 2012 • Lit Bezmozgis
New York Times Notable Book for 2011 • A Globe and Mail Best Books of the Year 2011
"Written in precise, musical prose, The Free World is a stunning debut novel, a heartfelt multigenerational saga of great historical scope and even greater human depth. Enlarging on the themes of aspiration and exile that infused his critically acclaimed first collection... The Free World establishes Bezmozgis as one of our most mature and accomplished storytellers."
• Natasha: And Other Stories • David Bezmozgis • 2005 • Lit Bezmozgis
A dazzling debut―and a publishing phenomenon―the tender, savagely funny collection from a young immigrant who has taken the critics by storm. ... The stories in Natasha possess a serious wit and uniquely Jewish perspective that recall the first published stories of Bernard Malamud and Philip Roth, not to mention the recent work of Jhumpa Lahiri, Nathan Englander, and Adam Haslett.
• A Replacement Life • Boris Fishman • 2015 • Lit Fishman
A singularly talented writer makes his literary debut with this provocative, soulful, and sometimes hilarious story of a failed journalist asked to do the unthinkable: Forge Holocaust-restitution claims for old Russian Jews in Brooklyn, New York.
• The Cosmopolitans • Nadia Kalman • 2010 • Lit Kalman
Equal parts Jane Austen and Gogol, THE COSMOPOLITANS casts a sharp and sympathetic eye on the foibles and rewards of family and life in America. This warm and exuberantly comic debut tells the story of the Molochniks, Russian-Jewish immigrants in suburban Connecticut. Daughters wed, houses flood, cultures clash, and the past has a way of emerging at the most inconvenient moments (and in the strangest ways).
• One More Year: Stories • Sana Krasikov • 2009 • Lit Krasikov [in process]
[An] extraordinary debut collection, illuminating the lives of immigrants from across the terrain of a collapsed Soviet Empire. With novelistic scope, Krasikov captures the fates of people–in search of love and prosperity–making their way in a world whose rules have changed.
• The Last Chicken in America : A Novel in Stories • Ellen Litman • 2008 • Lit Litman
"[An] elegantly constructed web of stories about Russian-Jewish immigrants....Warm, true and original."―New York Times Book Review. In twelve "pristine, entrancing" (Booklist) linked stories, Ellen Litman introduces an unforgettable cast of Russian-Jewish immigrants trying to assimilate in a new world.
• What Happened to Anna K.: A Novel • Irina Reyn • 2009 • Lit Reyn
Married unhappily to a prominent member of her tight-knit Russian immigrant community, vivacious Anna K. engages in a reckless affair with an outsider on whom she has pinned fleeting hopes for freedom, while in a neighboring community, Bukharian-Jewish pharmacist Lev harbors a consuming love for Anna's cousin.
• Absurdistan: A Novel • Gary Shteyngart • 2007 • Lit Shteyngart
“[N]ot just a hilarious novel, but a record of a particular peak in the history of human folly. No one is more capable of dealing with the transition from the hell of socialism to the hell of capitalism in Eastern Europe than Shteyngart, the great-great grandson of one Nikolai Gogol and the funniest foreigner alive.” –Aleksandar Hemon
• Lake Success: A Novel • Gary Shteyngart • 2018 • Lit Shteyngart
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When his dream of the perfect marriage, the perfect son, and the perfect life implodes, Barry Cohen, a self-made Wall Street millionaire takes a cross-country bus trip in search of his college sweetheart, whom he hasn't seen or spoken to in years, and ideals of youth. Meanwhile, reeling from the fight that caused Barry's departure, his super-smart wife Seema has her own demons to face.
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• Little Failure: a memoir • Gary Shteygart • 2014 • Bio Shteyngart
Gary Shteyngart turns to memoir in a candid, witty, deeply poignant account of his life so far. Shteyngart shares his American immigrant experience, moving back and forth through time and memory with self-deprecating humor, moving insights, and literary bravado. The result is a resonant story of family and belonging that feels epic and intimate and distinctly his own.
• The Russian Debutante's Handbook • Gary Shteyngart • 2003 • Lit Shteyngart
Bursting with wit, humor, and rare insight ... a highly imaginative romp and a serious exploration of what it means to be an immigrant in America.
• Super Sad True Love Story: A Novel • Gary Shteyngart • 2011 • Lit Shteyngart
New York Times Notable Book • In the near future, America is crushed by a financial crisis and our patient Chinese creditors may just be ready to foreclose on the whole mess. Then Lenny Abramov, son of an Russian immigrant janitor and ardent fan of “printed, bound media artifacts” (aka books), meets Eunice Park, an impossibly cute Korean American woman with a major in Images and a minor in Assertiveness. Could falling in love redeem a planet falling apart?
• Petropolis • Anya Ulinich • 2008 • on order
New York Times Notable Book • In her stunning debut novel, Anya Ulinich delivers a funny and unforgettable story of a Russian mail-order bride trying to find her place in America... [A] deeply moving story about the unexpected connections that create a family and the faraway places that we end up calling home.
• Lena Finkle's Magic Barrel : a graphic novel• Anya Ulinich • 2014 • on order
Anya Ulinich turns her sharp eye toward the strange, often unmooring world of “grown-up” dating in this darkly comic graphic novel. After her fifteen-year marriage ends, Lena Finkle gets an eye-opening education in love, sex, and loss when she embarks on a string of online dates, all while raising her two teenage daughters.
• The Scent of Pine • Lara Vapnyar • 2015 • Lit Vapnyar
A stirring, sexy, and breathtaking novel with an unforgettable twist .... both a poignant love story and a provocative tale of loneliness, longing, youthful romanticism, and the fickle nature of desire.
• Still Here : a novel • Lara Vapnyar • 2017 • Lit Vapnyar
In her warm, absorbing and keenly observed new novel, Lara Vapnyar follows the intertwined lives of four immigrants in New York City as they grapple with love and tumult, the challenges of a new home, and the absurdities of the digital age.
• There Are Jews in My House: Stories • Lara Vapnyar • 2003 • Lit Vapnyar
[O]ne of the most striking debuts of recent years. Tracing the lives and aspirations of Russians living in Moscow and Brooklyn, these poignant, sad and funny stories create a luminous new literary world.
TBE Library Reading Lists
created: December 2018
contact: librarytbe@gmail.com
