V Immigratsii

by Marina Raydun

V Immigratsii is a sweeping work of historical fiction tracing the extraordinary journey of a Soviet Jewish family fleeing the USSR in the late 1980s — a time when leaving meant surrendering everything. Told through multiple points of view, the novel moves between tense days in Austria and Italy, where the family petitions for refuge and chases a long-held dream, and the confined days of a present-day COVID lockdown, as they gather to reflect on the life-altering path they once traveled. As past and present converge, V Immigratsii explores the cost of survival, the weight of memory, and the enduring ties of love and belonging — all shaped by an unexpected turn in their search for a new home.

401 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 3, 2025

About the author

Marina's published works of fiction include a compilation of two novellas ("One Year in Berlin" and "Foreign Bride"), a full length suspense novel called "Joe After Maya," as well as a contemporary women's fiction novel entitled "Effortless." Born in the former Soviet Union, she lives in Brooklyn with her family.

Reviews

[Lisa Deborah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Marina Raydun’s V Immigratsii is a masterful and deeply moving work of historical fiction that captures the seismic dislocation of Soviet Jewish emigration in the late 1980s with remarkable intimacy and scope. This is a novel that understands immigration not as a single event, but as a continuous, reverberating journey that shapes generations, a story masterfully woven between the tense limbo of the past and the reflective confinement of the present.

The narrative structure is a profound strength. By shifting between the family’s desperate, uncertain days in Austrian and Italian transit camps, petitioning for refuge, chasing the “long-held dream” of freedom, and their gathering during a modern COVID-19 lockdown, Raydun creates a powerful dialogue between two kinds of confinement. This juxtaposition brilliantly illuminates the enduring psychological landscape of displacement. The lockdown becomes a crucible for memory, forcing a reckoning with the “cost of survival” and the “weight of memory” carried from the Old World to the New.

Raydun’s use of multiple points of view adds rich, polyphonic depth to the saga. We experience the hopes, fears, and sacrifices from different generational and personal perspectives, making the family’s ordeal both universally relatable and uniquely specific. The portrayal of their life in the USSR, where leaving meant surrendering citizenship, possessions, and identity, is rendered with palpable tension and loss.

The prose is elegant and evocative, balancing the epic sweep of historical upheaval with finely observed emotional details. Raydun explores the complex tapestry of “enduring ties of love and belonging” that are stretched and transformed by exile, and the “unexpected turn” that ultimately defines their new home adds a layer of poignant surprise.

V Immigratsii is more than an immigration story; it is a meditation on the meaning of home, the resilience of the human spirit, and the stories we tell ourselves to make sense of a fractured past. It is a necessary, beautiful, and unforgettable novel that speaks to anyone who has ever longed for a place to belong. A stunning achievement.

[Tara · Rating 5 out of 5]

V Immigratsii is a powerful and deeply affecting work of historical fiction that captures the emotional gravity of displacement with rare clarity and restraint. Marina Raydun traces the journey of a Soviet Jewish family with compassion and precision, illuminating what it truly means to leave everything behind, not just a country, but a language, an identity, and a sense of certainty about the future.

The novel’s shifting timelines are especially effective, weaving together the urgency of late-1980s refugee limbo in Austria and Italy with the quiet intensity of a modern COVID lockdown. This structure allows memory to surface organically, revealing how survival reshapes family bonds across generations. Raydun’s multiple perspectives give the story emotional breadth while preserving an intimate, human core.

What lingers most is the novel’s refusal to simplify immigration into a single moment of escape or arrival. Instead, V Immigratsii explores the long aftermath, the grief, resilience, and love that follow people wherever they land. This is a thoughtful, resonant novel that will strongly connect with readers drawn to stories of migration, identity, and inherited memory.

[Michael Doane · Rating 5 out of 5]

V Immigratsii is a profound and emotionally layered work of historical fiction that captures the immense courage required to leave everything behind in pursuit of freedom. Through multiple points of view and carefully interwoven timelines, Marina Raydun tells the story of a Soviet Jewish family whose escape from the USSR is marked by uncertainty, sacrifice, and quiet resilience. The transitions between the tense refugee experience in Europe and the reflective stillness of a modern-day lockdown are handled with grace and purpose.

What makes this novel especially compelling is its exploration of memory and identity. The weight of displacement, the cost of survival, and the bonds that endure across generations are portrayed with honesty and restraint. Raydun’s storytelling is intimate without being sentimental, expansive without losing focus. V Immigratsii is not only a testament to immigration and survival, but a deeply human meditation on belonging and the stories families carry forward.