Bronshtein in the Bronx

by Robert Littell

A vivid, visceral portrait of ten weeks in the life of Leon Trotsky, by the New York Times bestselling author of The Company

On Saturday, January 13, 1917, an ocean liner docks in New York Harbor. Among the disembarking emigrants is one Lev Davidovich Bronshtein—better known by his nom de guerre, Leon Trotsky. Bronshtein has been on the run for a decade, driven from his beloved Russia after escaping political exile in Siberia, his companion and two sons in tow. He lives and would die for a worker’s revolution, at any cost—but is he ready to become an American? In the weeks leading up to the February Revolution that will see Lenin’s Bolsheviks in power, Bronshtein haunts the streets, newspaper offices, and socialist gathering places of New York City, wrestling with the difficult questions of his personal revolutionary ideology, his place in his own family, his relationship to Lenin, and, above all, his conscience.

Master of espionage fiction Robert Littell brings to fictional life the ten weeks the world-famous revolutionary spent in the Bronx in this extraordinary meditation on purpose, passion, and the price of progress.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Russia

208 pages, Hardcover

First published January 28, 2025

About the author

An American author residing in France. He specializes in spy novels that often concern the CIA and the Soviet Union. He became a journalist and worked many years for Newsweek during the Cold War. He's also an amateur mountain climber and is the father of award-winning novelist Jonathan Littell.

Reviews

[Beata · Rating 3 out of 5]

A relatively short take on Leo Trotsky, who having escaped the place of detention in Siberia, spent time living in Europe, and then moved on to the US with his long-time companion and two sons. He spent some time living in New York just before the Bolsheviks took over the power, and the new situation drew him to Russia again. The book is short but gives a good insight into Bronshtein's life and his political opinions. The Author's tone is not sombre, and his idea of the voice in Trotsky's head is a good trick. Definitely worth reading if you know a little about Trotsky, and his later fate.
*Many thanks to Robert Littell, RBMedia, and NetGalley for a free audiobook in exchange for my honest review.*

[Barry Smirnoff · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is difficult for me to be objective about this book. Over the years, Robert Littell has been one of the finest authors of espionage fiction. He has written wonderful books, but the last few have not been my favorites. This book begins with an explanation. The authors grandfather’s name was Leon Litsky and in 1917 he asked a NYC judge to change his name to Littell. He was being called Leon Trotsky, and he didn’t like it! Well, author Littell has a bone to pick with Lev Bronshtein. This “historical”. Over takes place in NYC in 1917 with the arrival of the Trotsky in NY harbor with his wife and two sons. They are received at Ellis Island by non other than John E Hoover of the Department of Investigation, and then taken by N. Bulgarian to a Socialist reception where he meets Louis Fraina, later founder of the Communist Party and a half Jewish, half Mexican reporter for the Brooklyn Eagle who hits on Trotsky and they have an affair. This anticipates his future infidelity with Frida Kahlo. Trotsky has a great time living in a 3 room hot water flat in the Bronx, where he is a rock star, late of the 1905 Petersburg Soviet. He makes speeches, takes on pro-war socialists and is fixture at Novi Mir, the NY Bolshevik newspaper. Then the February Revolution breaks out and all the Russians go to the Canadian Consulate to get visas for the steamship to Europe that goes through Halifax. He meets Alexandra Kollontai, Emma Goldman, Ragtime jazz musicians in Harlem, and you know how it ends. This is not just counterfactual history, it has a sense of humor. At every turn, Trotsky is confronted “Litsky”, his conscience! This goes back to his rival in the Ukraine growing up, who was always putting him down. With hindsight the young Trotsky is seen as evolving into the #2 after Lenin, with a heavy foundation of the ends justify the means. For a very short book, Littell has some interesting facts. Trotsky points out that Lady Liberty’s back is facing the US. He has Trotsky meet an American Jewish millionaire who gives him a pastrami sandwich on a park bench along with $10,000 in new $50 dollar bills to fight anti-semitism in Russia, because the Zionist solution only lead to eternal conflict with the Arabs! I could go on. So what do I recommend? True it, it is so bad, it is good. I can wait to see what Littell is working on next!

[Ally · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Revolutions eat their children…”

I could not put this book down. For such a small book, it throws a solid punch. This book was precisely what I needed.

In sum, it is a fictional account of what took place during the brief time that Trotsky (Bronshtein) was in the US (one of his many exiled fleeings), before he returned to Russia to be involved in the revolution.

Trotsky is a prime example of the separation between ideology and execution. Of how power corrupts. Of how great ideas can become woefully skewed.

Of how so many revolutionaries never thought past what would happen if they did overthrow the current status quo. Of how many would be devoured in the cause and the massacres following.

Revolutions eat their children…who is willing to be a sacrifice? And who are they willing to sacrifice?

“The real revolution, my dear naive Leo, will come when an army of women rise up against state and church-organized misogyny.”

Fred is my hero. Hands down one of my favorite characters, and her calm challenging of Marxism made me smile wide as I read this.

‘At the end of January…Wilson broke off diplomatic relations with Berlin.
“Who will profit?” I screamed in print, rolling my editorial boulder up the steep hill of American hubris. “Global capitalism will profit! Who will bleed? The workers of the world will be bleeding! Never forget, in this spasm of supposed patriotism, that there are workers on both end of the bayonet.”

I will be reading this one again.

[♡ jess ♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I honestly don't even know how to review this book because I do not feel I will do it justice. This story took took so many different turns for such a short period of time, yet ultimately I would say this book was entertaining. I quickly found out that I am probably not the target audience for this historical fiction, however, Littell's writing was so compelling that I continued through! I can say that I knew absolutely nothing about Bronshtein/Trotsky or even the Bolshevik revolution - the U.S. education system has truly failed me.

I decided to give this four stars because it is not Littell's fault that I am undereducated in this area. His writing was easy to understand, humorous at times, and very amusing. I am interested in reading Littell's other works and doing some outside research myself into this time in history.

Thank you so much to Netgalley & RBmedia for this ARC.

[Drtaxsacto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Leo Trotsky came to New York in 1917 for 10 weeks and 2 days. This book is a fictional recreation of his time there. It is a very good attempt to explain his time there. One of the most creative parts of the narrative Littel create a conscience for Trotsky who is in constant dialogue with Trotsky - in a mocking tone that is really engaging.

Trotsky, along with Nikolai Bukharin, were key intellectuals in the Russian Revolution. Both ended up tragically Bukharin with a bullet in the head in a Russian prison and Trotsky with an ice axe in the back of the head in Mexico. I have been fascinated with him since I took a course in Russian history as an undergraduate. I think both had a problem with understanding the role of intellectuals in society. In 2000 I had the honor of speaking at a conference in the Vatican and we had an audience (with about 600 of my closest friends) with the pope who spoke about the role of universities in society where he said one of the dangers to universities was that scholars could tend to "endless meanderings of erudition". - Trotsky did a lot of those meanderings and one could understand why Stalin (who was far from and intellectual) couldn't stand him.

There are two other books that need to be mentioned. When Trotsky gets to the US and Ellis Island the arriving officer is John E Hoover - nice try but in 1917 Hoover was still in law school. But second Little does an afterward which tells what happened to all the key figures in the book.

I really enjoyed this book both for the history and for the invention.

[AL · Rating 5 out of 5]

Trotsky was a great many things, intriguing in how he lived, what he believed and his steps towards revolution. I first started growing interested in him when fulfilling my Frida obsession and how he came into play in her life. This has no mention of Frida as that came much later but puts a spotlight on his few months in the Bronx with his family in his late 20s upon being kicked out of Europe.

I wouldn’t say there’s anything particularly extravagant about this book and the curiosity stems from getting a splice of life of someone like Trotsky. The people he meets. His thoughts. His relationships with friends, family, enemies.

He certainly excited many people and caused a stir wherever he was sent or voluntarily escaped to!

[Lilly June · Rating 1 out of 5]

the reasons that I disliked this book are mostly because the children didn’t talk like children and the entire relationship with fred seemed unnecessary to me. also it reads like it was written by a man (iykyk) which always puts me off.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's a great deal packed into this slim volume, and I suppose one will react based on where one might find themselves on the political spectrum. Speaking in strictly storytelling terms, it manages to be revelatory, impactful, emotional, and thought-provoking in a concise package. If anything, I would have loved a novel twice its length...but I appreciate the mastery of brevity.

[Aubrey Nekvinda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent little novel. Very quirky and well written

[Yves Panis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Roman relayant le séjour peu connu de Trotsky à New York ou il apprend le début de la révolution russe de février 1917. Intéressant historiquement mais hélas sans la verve et le talent du Littell d’il y a quelques années. On sent que l’auteur depuis 3 ou 4 romans n’a plus le même talent qu’au moment de La Compagnie.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

My thanks to NetGalley and the Soho Press for an advance copy of this novel about the days a leader of the revolution spent time in the Great City of New York, a city that changed him in many ways, and changed the world in ways we are still reckoning with.

In this day of 24-hour news and social media stars who broadcast every second of their lives for clicks and monetization, its hard to believe that the lives of many important people still remain undocumented and unknown. Historians have some ideas, letters to to others, speeches, interviews with media, appearances in the biographies of others, but some people were so busy living life, they never had a chance to chronicle it. Also there is the constant problem of people misremembering, for reasons of time, age, or for ego. Filling in the blanks is something fiction writers can do. Working with the known, trying to get to the heart of the unknown. What could have happened in this time, what thoughts might have been worked on, what thoughts tossed out. What lapses in judgement, lapses in the struggle, lapses in faith. A dalliance, covert meetings. All of this is possible, and in some ways might be real. What is known is that the man that history knows best as Leon Trotsky came to America, lived in New York before the Russian Revolution, and returned to fight for the future of Russia. In the hands of writer Robert Littell, master espionage writer Bronshtein in the Bronx, is a novel of this time, about a man at a loss, on the run, with a future ahead of him that will make his name, but end in exile and violence.

On a January day a man presents four passports to a clerk in New York Harbor. The passport of the man has the name Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, but the clerk, named John E. Hoover knows the person better as Leon Trotsky. A Russian revolutionary Trotsky had just been tossed out of Spain for stirring trouble, something Trotsky was quite familiar with. Over the years Trotsky has spent most of his time on the run, with either his wife and children or alone with his conscience. A conscience that he calls Litzky, after a troublesome friend in childhood. Trotsky has come to America with dreams of getting the working class, of which America is full of, to turn against the capital system they labor under. Trotsky has no understanding of America, with its huge buildings, subways, and workers who dream not of changing the system, but being a part of it. As Trotsky meets people, both real and fictional Trotsky wonders about his mission, his goals, and dreams. Even as events are changing around him, and his dreams of revolution begin to come through.

A small book with a lot going on. Littell has an understanding of characters who deceive for a living and Trotsky was very good at that. Even with his family, he kept almost a cover, ready to give everything up for his dream of revolution. Much of this book seems like a dream, a dream that Trotsky used to find himself. Littell is a very good writer, and injects a lot of interesting tricks into the story. One I liked was the fact that Trotsky talks about his conscience sounding a lot like a boy Litzky he knew as a child. In the opening of the book, Littell talks that his father changed their last name from Leon Litzky to Littell as it sounded so close Trotsky. As Littell's father was walking these same streets at the same time, I wonder if the son used some of his father's stories to share Trotsky's adventures in New York. Not the book I expected, but one I really enjoyed, for the history, the characters and of course the writing.

I have enjoyed Robert Littell's books for a very long time. This is a departure it seems, but not really. Maybe more of a prologue to the books that Littell has written about espionage, Russia and the Cold War. A very good read, for a lot of different reasons.

[Bookreporter.com Historical Fiction · Rating 5 out of 5]

Leon Trotsky’s infamy precedes him by the time he reaches the United States in early 1917. Since he was at the forefront of a failed revolution in Russia to overthrow the czar, he is being targeted for lifetime exile in Siberia.

However, Trotsky manages to escape and leaves with his wife, Natalya, and their two children. He has resided in other less hostile countries in Western Europe, but his political activism leads him to become persona non grata and on the move once again. By the time his ship docks in New York Harbor, he and his brood hope for more than a brief respite from their itinerant lifestyle.

Trotsky’s paperwork identifies him as Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, but J. Edgar Hoover calls him Trotsky. He and his nuclear family are granted entry, even though Hoover is suspicious of his motives and believes he plans to foment revolution in the US. Despite the initial brusque introduction, Trotsky is greeted by associates who want to assist a comrade in adjusting to his new surroundings.

Since his abrupt departure from Russia, Trotsky has found employment as a press correspondent. In New York, he is hired to write for Novy Mir, a Socialist paper. When not working, he is usually meeting with socialists and discussing the progress in Russia. Some believe that patience is needed for revolutionary change, while others hold that it must come about quickly, even utilizing violence. When Trotsky speaks in front of crowds, he can command an audience. However, he is soon targeted for greater scrutiny by the government.

Trotsky’s sojourn in New York is not limited to stoking revolutionary fervor as he discovers after meeting Fred Fedora, a vivacious journalist from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. He begins a torrid affair with the leftist writer and risks Natalya’s wrath. His residence grows precarious by the day as Hoover and others want to expel him (if not worse) for his speeches, and Russia heads towards a bloody uprising.

BRONSHTEIN IN THE BRONX is the riveting new work from the always entertaining pen of Robert Littell, who this time ponders Trotsky's 10-week habitation in New York. As Europe lingers in a calamitous war, Russia’s future hangs by a thread, and Trotsky pines for a triumphant return home to lead the next revolution. Littell captures his subject masterfully and conveys the famed revolutionary's complex nature --- as a family man who can’t keep from stepping out on his wife, and a charismatic leader who worries about his position being usurped by upstarts like Josef Stalin.

While the mission is serious, the narrative hits humorous high notes with the dialogue between Trotsky and his nemesis, Leon Litzky. Litzky’s presence is only subconscious, but Trotsky’s interactions with him offer a window into a brilliant yet troubled mind. Littell’s speculative novel also serves as a quasi-prequel to the fascinating espionage tales he’s been writing for over 50 years.

Reviewed by Philip Zozzaro

[Reader · Rating 2 out of 5]

i found it increasingly difficult to finish this novel due to the frequent sprinkling of modern language (e.g “period.” “freaking” “yo” and others) that disrupted my immersion.

additionally, the element of lev’s vocal conscience is similarly disrupting to immersion, as he talks more with himself than any physical person. i agree with other critiques regarding the author not having much to say about trotsky, the revolution, or new york, and it is most obvious when examining this fact. it is also just a little unpleasant/grating to read after a while.

the dialogue also feels inappropriate to the characters we are introduced to. i felt this way very strongly when reading the dialogue in chapters 2 and 3, but mostly when he is aboard the montserrat and chatting with his family. i unfortunately am a bit ignorant on the ins and outs of historical socialism, but i felt more like i was reading the tweets of a gen z socialist during this segment of the novel than a socialist from the early 1900s.

it is an interesting retelling, and i was hooked with littell’s world building, but i ultimately fell out of step.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a somewhat humorous and humanizing audiobook whose point of view wais Leon Trotsky. The author’s father shared a name with Trotsky’s father. Trotsky, who was on the run spent ten weeks in NYC with his common law wife and two sons. He had a wife that he deserted when he escaped Siberia. Lev Davidovich Bronshtein (aka Trotsky) was hoping to incite a worker’s revolution here. He was disappointed that American workers were more interested in getting a bigger slice of the pie than in creating a worker’s paradise.

I did not know much about this historical figure and reading this short novel provided me with a better understanding of who Leon Trotsky was and how he fit into the context of the Russian upheavals and revolution at the beginning of the last century. It also helped me to see him as a person instead of a forbidding and serious historical figure. Adam Grupper did a great job as

Be sure to listen (or read) the afterward by the author as it is most chilling.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Those seeking to change the world often view their surroundings through political and social ideals. For some, politics becomes the driving force behind their actions, whether it’s the willingness to risk one’s life to obtain a political end or political ideas coloring the way one views those of a different religion or race. That was certainly true of the real life Leon Trotsky, a portion of whose life is featured in the novel “Bronshtein in the Bronx” by Robert Littell (Soho Press). The need to understand how politics influenced her mother’s actions during World War II France is what led French historian Cecile Desprairies to write her autobiographical novel “The Propagandist” (New Vessel Press). Each work offers insights into the role politics played in these families’ lifes.
See the rest of my review at https://www.thereportergroup.org/book...

[patricia j patane · Rating 5 out of 5]

My interest was always directed towards Czarist Russia. Only lately watching our own government go to pieces have I developed an interest in Revolutions and how they go wrong. Knowing nothing about Trotsky except that he was Jewish I was surprised to find out that he had come to the US and spent the early days of the revolution here.
You just have to wonder if there is an afterlife do these makers of history have any regrets or even a realization at some point of turning their backs on conscience and not only destroying their own lives but those of their families and many innocent victims. I remember reading a thick book on Stalin’s terror. It begins with noting that every word every comma and every apostrophe and period in that book represents a victim of the Terror. How can that ever be atoned for or justified.

[Carol Dimitriou · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting novel about the Russian revolutionist, Leon Trotsky. His real name was Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, and he came with his two young sons and his partner to New York in 1917, and lived in the borough of the Bronx for ten weeks, before returning to Russia to join Lenin in the 1917 revolution. On a personal note, I learned from the book that he lived in an apartment on Vyse Avenue, the street where my late grandfather lived in the 1940s and 1950s. I found this to be funny, since my grandfather was the farthest from a revolutionary there could be!

[Cflack · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short well written and entertaining book fictionalizing the 10+ weeks Trotsky and his family spent in NY before leaving for Russia to help lead the 1917 revolution. Trotsky is “accompanied “ by his conscience who he banters with regularly adding an interesting take to his time in NY. The writing is clever, concise and thoughtful.

[J · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the idea of this book, and the writing style was funny, but didn't get beyond an amusingly-imagined telling of the known facts (albeit with an imagined dalliance with a Frida-esque character who taught Trotsky about oral sex.) I came away feeling like the writer didn't really have a whole lot to say about 1910s New York, the Russian Revolution, or Trotsky.

[Chris Grawl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Your Lady Liberty is a fairy tale marketing American exceptionalism. American exceptionalism, which is American hubris by another name, is the unspoken justification for American exploitation of the rest of the civilized world.

[Quentin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought this would be more of a nonfiction historical, instead was more historical fiction. The first 50 pages were a little ehh, I didn't love how much Trotzky talked to himself. The last 1/4 was more enjoyable to read imo.

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was crazy in the best way, I really enjoyed it despite an affair taking up a good portion of it, and honestly a lot of it was just Communist stump speeches, but it was great historical fiction, and I feel like I learned a lot from it, despite not really knowing what was real versus fake. Would definitely read again and looking forward to checking out the author's other books even though they look very different from this one.

[Dan LeSeure · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a weird book: Trotsky constantly harassed by his conscience. Not at all consistent with other descriptions of Trotsky at this point in his life. The author may be playing with family stories more than with historical Trotsky.