You, With Your Waiting: A Novel of Siblings, Survival and the Holocaust in the Soviet Union

by Leslie Lacin, Mike Hall (Illustrator), Richard Ljoenes (Illustrator)

Two Jewish children. A world in flames. A daring quest to survive.

In the summer of 1941, the Abramov children have no idea their homeland will become ground zero for the extermination of the Jews. As Nazi forces sweep into the Soviet Union, an innocent fourteen-year-old Bronya dreams only of the violin. She has just earned a coveted place at the Moscow Conservatory. Her horizons are shattered all to quickly and she must carry her battered case into war, as both shield and promise. Her younger brother Avsey, precocious and lonely, hoards stolen family treasures in a birch box, his secret world his only defense against the chaos and displacement that will soon engulf him.

With their mother institutionalized and their father preparing to defend the motherland, the siblings are scattered, forced into choices no child should ever face. Bronya is sent to harvest wheat in the Ukrainian fields, armed only with her violin, while Avsey evacuates with neighbors who desert him, leaving him to survive on luck and wit. And the contents of his birch box.

The children are pushed through the landscape of war—Bronya makes her way east, one step ahead of the Germans as they take Kharkov. Avsey works with partisans on the front lines in Ukraine and forays into enemy territory as a spy. Impossibly, both children are pushed into the spa towns in the Caucuses, tantalizingly close to one another yet uncertain as to the other's whereabouts. As the Germans occupy the mountainous region, Avsey learns his sister is in Zheleznovodsk, not far from him in Pyatigorsk. He makes a dangerous nighttime foray over the mountain that separates them, only to learn Bronya has fled. As the children navigate the occupation and the roundups of Jews, they again must make impossible choices — and survival becomes both an act of resistance and a fragile hope.

You, With Your Waiting is a searing novel of childhood lost, of courage forged of necessity, and of the haunting bonds that tether us to family, memory, and home.

315 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 18, 2025

About the author

Leslie Lacin grew up in California roaming the beaches and canyons and surfing the Pacific Ocean. After she graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, she lived in New York City, Paris and Geneva before attending the University of Oxford. Her love of Russian literature and history compelled her to complete an M.Phil in Russian, Soviet and eastern European studies, spending precious months engaged in research in Moscow and beyond. She drove through Eastern Europe as the Berlin Wall fell, permanently changed by the people and stories she encountered. She visited the concentration camps and became passionate about the Jewish history of both eastern Europe and the former Soviet territories.
In 2015, Leslie returned to Russia and intrigued by a story she'd heard about the Ravine of Snakes in Rostov-on-Don, began to interview Russian Holocaust survivors about their experience under German Occupation and the mass killings in the Caucuses. Her debut novel, You, With Your Waiting, began with those interviews and initiated long years of travel and research. The novel is based on historical events, many of them unknown to western readers.
Leslie lives in Raleigh, North Carolina with her husband and two terriers where they welcome their children and grandchildren, wandering students and friends with open arms.

Reviews

[A.J. Barnes · Rating 5 out of 5]

I find myself struggling to put into words how I felt about this book. It was beautifully done, and completely heart wrenching. The relationships between family members— Avsey and Bronya, Asha and Kuzma, Sara and Asha, etc—offered a continued sense of purpose and love even in the darkest of times. The displays of intergenerational protection and willingness to sacrifice for their family were incredibly well done.

Asha and Kuzma’s relationship proved that a mother’s love for her son is unconditional and powerful. Despite having been driven apart for so long, the immediate recognition of each other and the unwillingness to part even at the brink of death was very emotional for me.

[Debbie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an excellent read. Lacin tells a story I've never read. It focuses on Southeastern Europe during the Nazi invasion and a Jewish family's efforts to avoid capture as the Nazi's horrible intentions were coming to light. It is clear that a huge amount of research went into this book. It's rare that I read a book of historical fiction and feel the author's journey to the setting through details that only physical presence and thoughtful observation could provide. The writing is accessible, intelligent and engaging.

[Melissa Porter · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brutal, visceral retelling of Holocaust survivors' experiences, woven into a beautiful story of human resilience, a harrowing quest to survive, and the rebuilding of a family. After all, "we are .... all we have." This was grueling, gripping ... I feel like I was there. The lifetime of research that built this masterpiece is truly remarkable.

[Becky BEHRENS · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting and informative. I definitely recommend this book!

[Aletha Pagett · Rating 5 out of 5]

A story of family, love, fear, bravery and overcoming. This e-book, set during the holocaust, was received from Goodreads.

[Dagnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorite genre is Historical Fiction and I read primarily from the WWII and post-war era, so I've read a lot of WWII literature over the last few years. This book was so incredibly unique from previous reads in that it focuses on the Russian front and a family as they work against the Nazi advance as well as trying to find their way to each other. It was gut wrenching read at times but it was worth every moment. A beautiful book.