The Nesting Dolls

by Alina Adams

Spanning nearly a century, from 1930s Siberia to contemporary Brighton Beach, a page turning, epic family saga centering on three generations of women in one Russian Jewish family—each striving to break free of fate and history, each yearning for love and personal fulfillment—and how the consequences of their choices ripple through time.

Odessa, 1931. Marrying the handsome, wealthy Edward Gordon, Daria—born Dvora Kaganovitch—has fulfilled her mother’s dreams. But a woman’s plans are no match for the crushing power of Stalin’s repressive Soviet state. To survive, Daria is forced to rely on the kindness of a man who takes pride in his own coarseness.

Odessa, 1970. Brilliant young Natasha Crystal is determined to study mathematics. But the Soviets do not allow Jewish students—even those as brilliant as Natasha—to attend an institute as prestigious as Odessa University. With her hopes for the future dashed, Natasha must find a new purpose—one that leads her into the path of a dangerous young man.

Brighton Beach, 2019. Zoe Venakovsky, known to her family as Zoya, has worked hard to leave the suffocating streets and small minds of Brighton Beach behind her—only to find that what she’s tried to outrun might just hold her true happiness.

Moving from a Siberian gulag to the underground world of Soviet refuseniks to oceanside Brooklyn, The Nesting Dolls is a heartbreaking yet ultimately redemptive story of circumstance, choice, and consequence—and three dynamic unforgettable women, all who will face hardships that force them to compromise their dreams as they fight to fulfill their destinies. 

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Russia, Jewish, Historical, Family, Audiobook

384 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 14, 2020

About the author

Alina Adams is Jewish, lives on the East Coast, married with two kids and is the author of Berkley Prime Crime's "Figure Skating Mysteries," including "Murder on Ice," "On Thin Ice," and coming in January 2006 "Axel of Evil!"

Reviews

[Debbie W. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book's cover with historical Russian scenes embedded within a matryoshka doll outline drew me in. The story within is just as good!
Spanning a time frame from 1931 Soviet Union to 2019 Brighton Beach, this unique historical fiction explores the lives of 3 strong female characters through loyalty, secrecy, betrayal, and choices.
Daria - my favorite story in this book! Absolutely terrifying how one could easily be banished to a Siberian gulag over a trivial "transgression";
Natasha - a semi-revolutionary anti-Communist more interested in meeting one man's wants rather than the safety of her family; and,
Zoe - a millennial living in America with three maternal matriarchs, trying to live her New World thoughts without disrespecting Old World beliefs.

I really enjoyed:
- Alina Adams' overall writing style, including unexpected twists,
- the cultural nuances, many that I could relate to personally,
- the interspersing of actual facts and events, including mention of the Holodomor and Babi Yar.

Overall, a fine story I highly recommend for historical fiction fans!

[Danielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you @goodreads, @iamalinaadams and @harpercollins #goodreadsgiveaway for sending me a uncorrected proof of The Nesting Dolls by Alina Adams.

This book took me an embarrassingly long time to read. 🤭I just didn’t feel that pull or need to pick it up. I do have a lot going on right now, so I have been breezing through more mind numbing type books instead.🤗

This book is told by three different generations of women (all of the same family):
Book 1: Daria: 1931-1941
Book 2: Natasha: 1970-1975
Book 3: Zoe: 2019

I adored Book 1. ❤️❤️ It’s the time of Stalin in the Soviet Union. This story was heartbreaking. I easily would have given this 5 stars. I could have read more and more about Daria. Her life was fascinating and the sacrifice she made for her family, I could just go on and on (and wish this part of the story had!)💔💔

Book 2 just wasn’t as fascinating to me. Natasha is a University student, who gets tangled with a group of rebels trying to escape the USSR. It was ‘okay’... but kinda a let down after how great book 1 was. 😑

Book 3 was a snooze fest. 🥱 Zoe wants to make her family happy, but wants to be a real American and make her own choices. I just didn’t connect with her or care really about her story. 😴

So overall this book was a 3 for me. I’m very thankful to goodreads for their giveaways!! Hooray for books!! ❤️📚

[Jennifer ~ TarHeelReader · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

As a child, I was fascinated with nesting dolls. I loved their beauty and all the designs, how each doll would differ, and how they would all fit together. The Nesting Dolls is an epic in scope historical fiction novel that begins in Siberia during the 1930s and lands in contemporary Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. There are three timelines - two in Odessa in the past and the present. The women are Dvora/Daria, Natasha, and Zoe. Each character has her own “book,” and Daria’s was my favorite.

The Nesting Dolls begins in a Siberian gulag and then becomes centered on the Soviet “refuseniks,” with Natasha’s storyline. It is a story of what it was like to be Jewish in the USSR and Russia throughout the 20th century. The characters were well-developed, and the story was rich in details. Overall, I enjoyed this beautifully-told book and would recommend it for historical fiction readers who are drawn to character-driven stories of survival in a time and place not often written about.

I received a gifted copy. All opinions are my own. Many of my reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com or instagram: www.instagram.com/tarheelreader

[Marilyn (not getting notifications) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had recently read Alina Adams’ most recent novel, My Mother’s Secret, and was so impressed with it that I decided to read The Nesting Dolls, a book she wrote prior to My Mother’s Secret. Was I glad that I decided to read The Nesting Dolls! It was captivating, inspirational and heartbreaking! Alina Adams’ writing was masterful and her attention to historical facts was impeccable. I listened to the audiobook that was narrated very well by Nancy Peterson.

I felt that Alina Adams’ writing was so believably convincing because she was able to base much of her writing on her own life, growing up in Russia and then immigrating to the United States. Alina Adams was able to paint, although bleak and challenging at best, an accurate account of what life was like for Russian Jews during the specific time lines of the 1930’s, the 1970’s and present day. Her masterful storytelling transported the reader to the Siberian gulags under Stalin in the 1930’s, to the uprising of the disillusioned and rebellious of the 1970’s and finally to present day, to the challenges that those that immigrated to the United States faced. The Nesting Dolls was a family saga that followed strong and determined Russian women over many generations. It looked closely at these courageous women as they strived to free themselves from the fates that awaited them and their long complicated histories. Alina Adams explored many themes throughout the pages of The Nesting Dolls including the act of suffering, family, love, loss, sacrifice, hopes, the emotional scars that never seemed to heal, survival, impossible choices, consequences and compromises. I really enjoyed listening to The Nesting Dolls and recommend it very highly. I look forward to reading many more books by Alina Adams.

[Annette · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Family saga centering on three generations of women in one Russian Jewish family” – each striving to be free from oppression and yearning for personal fulfillment.

Odessa, USSR, 1931-1941. Daria, at seventeen years old, marries an accomplished pianist. Her mother is very proud of marring Daria to the right man. Under the Soviet control, where everyone is equal, you have to weigh your words very carefully or someone may show up at your doorstep to collect you. Daria and her family are arrested and forced into a labor camp in Siberia. At the labor camp, they are told that they’re not prisoners, but pioneers who will prove their worth through honest work by building homes and schools, raising children and educating them.

Not prisoners, but pioneers, and yet people feel terrorized. Well-depicted terror inflicted by despotic rule, along with beautifully crafted story of a woman who is willing to take any measure to protect her family. She is a strong, passionate woman. But others’ passions turn into passive and compliant characters. When the government takes from you and distributes among all. When you have no say how you want to live your life. It’s all decided for you. You just need to agree and comply with what is being said and done.

Odessa, 1970-1991. Natasha doesn’t get into university, because like other Jews they were given unsolvable equations in math. And that was “to keep Jews out of universities.” With her parent’s bribe, she gets into teacher’s college. Once a teacher, students’ passing is her responsibility. USSR is eager to educate everyone, even peasants. The communal learning process is praised as uniquely Soviet, graduating five times the number of engineers, doctors, and academics in this manner.

Told to follow the rules, be good, and a reward would come. But it never does. Thus, some go into submission and some rebel.

Brighton Beach aka “Little Odessa,” NY. 2019. Zoe has “important career in researching businesses.” In order to get where she wanted to be she had to take loans to be able to study at NYU. It’s an American way of life. She “is doing everything she can to distance herself from the Little Odessa ghetto” in oceanside Brooklyn. “How odd it was to be American, feel American, look American on the outside – and yet somehow still be so foreign on the inside.”

She didn’t experience difficulties living under an oppressed rule. As a first generation American, she tries to distance herself from the ghetto (emigrant) area and fit with other Americans. But what is a ghetto for her was a safe haven for her mother and grandmother. Nevertheless, she is respectful of her family and tries to make them happy, but at the same time she wants to make her own choices. And what grandma hopes for Zoe is to be able “to tell difference between the wanting and the needing.” The subject that was explored through previous stories.

The story has a good pace and is interestingly presented through all generations. It well depicts women “striving to break free of fate and history, each yearning for love and personal fulfillment.”

Nevertheless, the first story of Daria is the strongest and most engrossing story. As mentioned before, I still found the following two stories interesting, bringing something new to the story in terms of historical background and a different perspective on life and longings. Bringing also cultural aspect, which is always interesting and a feedback how one culture views another.

[Brina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Woot, I’m on vacation and a few years ago I discovered that I can actually read in the car. That has been a game changer because seventeen hours in both directions can be boring without something to pass the time. At home lately I have only been able to read nonfiction because after a day at work, I am too agitated to jump into a story, or too busy. One of my goodreads groups arranged a zoom call with author Alina Adams next month. I had been told that this book is one that I would enjoy, so I saved it for car ride reading. Little did I know that the concept of Russian matryoshka dolls would become a page turner that only took up half of my trip.

My family emigrated to the United States in the years 1905 and 1910. I had always been told that the family came from Russia and spoke the Yiddish vernacular, but my family came from Ukrainian shtetl in proximity to Odessa, smack in the pale of settlement. Both sides of my family had the foresight to realize that life for Jews under communism would be just as bad as it had been under the tsar so they left, opting for life in America, in new shtetl named Brooklyn and Rogers Park. Alina Adams family remained in Odessa until 1976 when they emigrated to Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. The Nesting Dolls, showing how events in one generation resulted in consequences generations later, largely mirrors her family’s history. After reading her depiction of life for Jews in Odessa and knowing what is happening now, her family seems to be one of the lucky ones.

Dvora Kaganovitch had been told by her mother to change her name to Daria in order to appear less Jewish by society. This is where her mother had been wrong, no name change would ever mistake a Dvora for a Daria; yet, in prewar Odessa, having some knowledge of what the Germans were building, Jews in neighboring countries took precautions. Dvora aka Daria marries renown international pianist Edward Gordon. Gordon is labeled being against the communist regime and banned from giving concerts outside of the country. His crime: “speaking German.” It was Dvora who had been speaking Yiddish with her mother, who never learned Russian. The family is deported to Siberia, all except Edward’s father who stays and tries to bribe the family’s way out. At the time, no one knew who was for or against communism and no one could leave. In 1941, however, Siberia most likely saved the family from a worse fate. And the Gordons and future generations survive under communist rule.

The second and featured part of this novel focuses on Daria’s granddaughter Natasha Nahumevna. Natasha could have been Adams’ mother. In the early 1970s, one could often find two or more families sharing a two bedroom apartment. There was no privacy whatsoever and the majority of families only had one child. Those who cooperated with the party line received better housing, privileges, etc. This accedes with what my Russian friends have told me, a woman who attend university and had six siblings. They lived a choice life in Moscow. For Natasha and her childhood housemate Boris, however, both gifted mathematicians hoping to attend university, there were Jewish quotas, the opposite of affirmative actions. There were only so many jobs and only so many good communists available to fill them. Jews were expected to become doctors and engineers, but only a few had the opportunity to attend university. Those like Natasha were given Jewish problems at their admissions test to be unequivocally denied entry. Boris had the foresight to apply for immigration papers, Natasha wanted to change the system, that is until she realized that quiet, do good Boris was right. In the late 1970s there was little future for Jews in Odessa until glasnost opened things up, but that came later. Boris lead two generations of their new joint family to America, which quickly became Little Odessa; yet, at least, it was not ruled by communism.

In the early 1990s with the fall of communism, Russia finally let the Jews out. My family participated in an adopt a Russian family program to help them adapt to life in the United States. Those who stayed until the 1990s got to attend university and became engineers but few enjoyed the modern conveniences of dish washers, cars, and food like pizza. The four year girl in the family we adopted let us know that she did not like pizza, her first English words to us. Boris and Natasha, not the spies who hunted Rocky and Bullwinkle, got out early. Boris was one of the first computer engineers at a company named Ratfor, paving the way for generations of would be Russian engineers and computer scientists. They and their daughter wanted their granddaughter Zoyanka aka Zoe to go into engineering. She wanted to be writer and leave little Odessa and have her own 21st century life that did not involve Russian Jewish babushkas. Younger readers will enjoy Zoe’s story, but I still view Boris and Natasha as the stars of the show. Seeing what they fled and having to learn English as adults, I view their generation as the trailblazers, the generation often overlooked when discussing the Russian Jewish experience.

Today there had been a thriving Jewish culture in Russia and Ukraine. Religion has risen from the embers of communism, many Jews in name only who could not openly practice any religion which was an enemy of the state. Most people when they think of Jewish life in Russia they think of my family who left before the revolution or the ones who were allowed to leave following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Less think in terms of the broad scope of families who stayed through communism or were among the first wave to leave in the 1970s. Alina Adams’ family was one who left in this middle generation and uses matryoshka dolls to reveal the ripple effect of what happens to a family over the course of generations. The Nesting Dolls has been more than a car ride read. It is a family saga of Russian Jews who stayed and then left on time and persevered. This has been hers and their mesmerizing story.

🪆 4 stars 🪆

[Darla · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Love is not a potato," according to Zoe's great-grandmother. "Because," Zoe's great-grandmother explains. "when love goes bad, you cannot throw it out the window."

So begins the multi-generational saga that begins in Odessa in the Soviet Union and ends in Brighton Beach in the USA. Three women are featured and all face a moment when they must choose the man they NEED, not the man they WANT. It is clear that Alina Adams is writing stories of people she knows well. Her heritage shines through and we gain empathy and understanding for fellow Americans that we may not be familiar with. I am so glad she shared this book with us!

Thank you to HarperCollins and Edelweiss for a DRC in exchange for an honest review.

[Amanda M (On The Middle Shelf) · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I enjoyed the premise of this book, the execution was a little off for me. We follow three different women in three different time periods from the same family. I really enjoyed the first part of this book and Daria's story. I could have read a whole book about her, but then again I am a lover of historical fiction. The other two stories weren't as compelling to me. Especially Natasha's.

Each of these stories follows the women and how their Jewish culture affects them at different stages in history. It also deals with their relationship with men and how you may not end up with who you think you should be with, but who you need instead.

[Christina · Rating 4 out of 5]

At first I wasn’t sure why the book was titled nesting dolls but as I read i decided it meant 6 generations of women nestled inside one another.

Beginning with Daria in 1930’s Siberia under Stalin and ending with Zoe in Brighten Beach, NY in 2019, the story follows the joys and hardships of each woman as they navigate their lives upon the foundation of their mother’s choices and their own circumstances.

I learned more about the Jews being cast out of Russia by the pogroms. I didn’t know that when they were sent to Ukraine, they were considered neither Ukrainians or Russians but solely Jews. They never belonged. They were forever in-between. This seems to progress down through ages and in each community. I am interested to learn more about this subject.

Most of all the book brought to life, for me, the fact that what we deem a hardship may be a minor blip in the road to another and that we should never discount another persons troubles because we can’t relate. Each person experiences sorrows in their own way and we should try to be sympathetic and understanding.

[Penny (Literary Hoarders) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well I just loved this one! The Nesting Dolls is a great title as we open up the generations of women - these mothers, and grandmothers, and great-grandmothers and great-great grandmothers.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Have you ever had the experience of reading the first page, and knowing you were in the beginning of a five star read? The Nesting Dolls weaves an incredible tale of five generation of women passing down their strength and resilience, beginning in the throes of Soviet dictatorship. I did think the most current day story was the weakest, but still in the feeling of the first 70% of the book, I was carried to the end. I have heard a rumor that Alina Adams loves to talk to book groups. I would like to hear her thoughts on this one. I thought it was beautifully done.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book club selection for January 2022.

Hated the Siberian work camp experiences of the Russians who were abducted from their Odessa apts at 4 am because it was reported they spoke German!! Kruchev et. al. 1934.

What a horrendous life Russians had already had under Stalin. I was not sure I would continue with the book. The horror ends by page 80. Then the book is a much better read involving the next 3 generations of women who all end up living together in one apt after emmigrating.

[Vickie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, this book certainly lifted me out of a reading slump. The Nesting Dolls by Alina Adams is a wonderful but heart-wrenching journey of being Jewish under Communist rule and told through the eyes of three women from the same family. We first meet Daria whose story is from 1931-1941. These are the early days of Russian Communism when ideology is at its zenith and citizens living under the rule of Stalin learn how to either become a proper Communist citizen or suffer the consequences. Daria's story is heartbreaking but encompasses the strength of the Russian spirit. Next we meet Natasha who is Daria's granddaughter and whose story is from 1970-1991. Natasha is alive during the heyday of Soviet dissidents and the reader is taken into an interesting time when the "older" citizens remember the night raids while the "younger" citizens take great risks with their open protests to let the world know how the Communist government is abusing the human rights of their citizens. Last we meet Zoe who is the first child born in America and how she has carved out her own path but is still influenced by the women in her life.

I enjoyed connecting with the women's story on several levels. One, it is amazing what a mother will do to ensure the welfare of her children. Second, having married into a family of Jewish Russian emigres, I could connect to how the past has really influenced the present in terms of raising the children, that fear of success, i.e., waiting for something to interrupt any success gained, and the older generation pushing the next generation to succeed further than what they had. Last, having friends my age who grew up Jewish in Ukraine and now living in the US, I have a deeper appreciation of what they lived through and why they are so invested in their religious and cultural tradition.

Many thanks to the author for drawing on her family's experiences and sharing them with the reader. BTW, I love the title and the concept of the matroyshka dolls and their symbolism of the mother carrying a child within her and can be seen as a representation of a chain of mothers carrying on the family legacy through the child in their womb. This was an excellent read!!

Go Cards! L1C4!!

[Sarah Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received an uncorrected proof copy of this novel from HarperCollins.

This generational family saga follows three generation of women in a Russian Jewish family. While the perspective shifts over the years, the ripple effects of each woman's choices are felt over time. Opening in 1931, the story begins with Daria, whose family is crushed by Stalin's Soviet state. To survive and to save her family, Daria makes choices that dramatically alter her family's future. In 1970, her granddaughter Natasha is crushed that her dreams of becoming a mathematician will never be realized because Jewish students are barred from entering the top universities. This disappointment leads her to take a different path, that ultimately leads her family to America. And finally, in 2019 in the United States, Natasha's granddaughter Zoya must find her own path while coming to terms with her family's history.

I loved the frame story for this novel and the title, which so neatly sums it up, as each succeeding woman in this family is a part of what came before her. Like many novels told from multiple perspectives, it's hard not to prefer one woman's story over others. The first story told this in this novel, of Daria, who is sent to a labor camp in Siberia and is must turn to a man who is not her husband to survive was the most compelling for me. Of course, Daria's story informs that of the women who come after her, but no story was as captivating in the way hers was and the novel grew increasingly less interesting with each jump in perspective after her story.

A well-done multi-generational story that shows the lasting impact of trauma on subsequent generations. This is a story of survival, of women trapped by their circumstances but canny enough to find alternate routes to survive and protect their family.

[Laurie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A powerful thought provoking family ‘coming-of-age’ drama that transports the reader from Communist Russia to the USA. Multigenerational tale of three women filled with courage & determination .. I truly enjoyed this fictional history book.

[Tammy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review TK

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel is a great story as well as an education as to what three generations of a Russian Jewish family had to face in the USSR and in their attempts to make a better life for themselves. Choices made by the three main female characters in the book are at times sad, surprising, and not always the BEST choices, but as they learn, they are often the choices they needed to make. The three main female characters, Daria, Natasha and Zoe, are all strong and decisive, however, I held back the fifth star in the review because Natasha was more naive than I thought fit the story and the character. All in all, an excellent read. Thanks to Edelweiss for the ARC.

[The Book Distiller · Rating 4 out of 5]

While this was a long and thorough family saga, I found it really interesting and engaging. The insight into Communism and Socialism is really interesting, and verifies all my thoughts on those two forms of government with dictatorships as not being conducive to citizens and the common man (look at corruption, extreme poverty, no freedoms in those countries). I really enjoyed that insight as well. Alina Adams developed her characters extremely well and provided great historical details, which I greatly appreciate as a reader.

[Sheila Woofter · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first part of the book would have rated higher for me. But... the story goes on skipping generations. I wanted to know so much more about each character, as well as the 'in-between' people we didn't get to know much at all. I would have read a trilogy!

[Pam Warner · Rating 2 out of 5]

Could have been a great story! Very disappointing. Very choppy writing. Not my cup of tea !

[Anita · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Nesting Dolls is a multi-generational story of a family of Jews from the early 1900's to the early 2000's. It's told topically from 3 of the generation's women's POV, beginning with Daria, whose mother cultivates into a young woman worthy of a notable match to raise her out of her social bubble. Daria goes to a Russian school to learn the language and carry herself properly. Daria is paraded in front of a notable pianist who has some social standing until a marriage is made and the mama disappears from the story. We never learn her name. She was a hard women who knew the world was changing and did what she could to set her daughter up.

I don't want to give a synopsis of the book, but essentially it's a story of women in difficult or seemingly impossible situations where the political world around them forces their choices to: one or the other. There is always a man involved, and though this really irks me, I try not to force modern conceptions onto every situation and historical event or time period, let alone region. Still, by the second part- taking place in 1970's Russia, I was over the trope. Part 3 takes place in America, and this generation's female has options. Her life at home is in contrast with her life outside, and she's struggling at just being American. This is a struggle, a personal image conception that really resonates with me as an Asian American, so this part really redeemed the book for me. A lot.

I would say most people who enjoy lighter historical fiction/romance books will love this one, and I would say please go forth, devour and enjoy. For me, it lacked the political depth and character development I need in a book. The setting was so good that I feel there was a lot of missed opportunity. And some of these husbands were so poorly developed. I have read too many books that do this to female characters and I hate to see it done by female writers to their male characters. I also could have happily read a full length novel of Daria's story.

[Enchanted Prose · Rating 4 out of 5]

The trauma of Russian Jewish oppression passed down five generations (Odessa, Ukraine and a Siberian labor camp, USSR, 1931 to 1975; Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, 2019): The catchy title of Russian-American Alina Adams’ sweeping historical family tale comes from the brightly painted, wooden Russian female dolls ranging in size from larger to smaller, each fitting inside another. Representing motherhood, they also represent four of the five Russian Jewish female characters, all mothers from different generations of a single family, in the Nesting Dolls.

The doll/character who doesn’t fit comfortably is the smallest/youngest one: Zoe, the protagonist, twenty-something-ish, single, childless. She’s not supposed to fit easily as she’s the modern-day character, half-in and half-out, having trouble fitting in with the Old World and a Russian-born-in-America’s new one. The older women’s stories help explain why.

Could anyone other than a gifted writer born in Odessa, Ukraine – like three of the five generations of women in Adams’ novel – who immigrated with her family to America in the 1970s when a wave of Russian Jews were able to escape their Communist “prison country” – be able to craft such an emotionally authentic Russian Jewish historical novel? By the time you reach the final page “About the Author,” you’re likely to think maybe no one could.

By definition, a novel that chronicles a family over a period in time is a sub-genre of fiction called a family saga. The Nesting Dolls easily fits that descriptor. Chronicling the Russian Jewish experience reaches far beyond that.

A whip-smart, four-page Prologue introduces four generations (the first generation is no longer alive). If your brain is like mine, you may find the familial names/relationships a bit confusing. Please don’t put this book down, thinking you’ll return to it when your mind is clearer. Because as soon as the novel opens in 1931 with Daria’s incredible Odessa-to-Siberian labor camp journey, you’ll be mesmerized. Reading what it was like to have “no rights, only obligations” will be painfully clear.

One more caveat: please don’t think all five generational stories are as deathlike and soulless as Daria’s, although the three women born in Odessa had “lived in the dread.” Rather, it’s how the scars from their experiences got passed down to Zoe, that provoke the question, Can you ever escape the trauma of persecution?

To get you past the brilliant, enigmatic Prologue that you’ll return to some 250 pages later when it makes perfect sense, below are the characters’ names and relationships to Zoe, because that’s how the reader must understand them.

First Generation Daria : Zoe’s great-great grandmother. Born Dvora Kaganovitch. Hers is the longest story. Chapter 1 opens with Daria just married to Edward Gordon, a famous pianist “too privileged, too genteel” for the bleak, harsh Soviet system. Traveling the world to give concerts made him a suspect, an enemy of the State. Truth is all you had to do was act like an “individual above the collective” to be viewed as a traitor, especially if you were a Jew. The newlyweds lived with Edward’s father and were watched over by a giant of a man, Adam. There’s even a Russian word for him: dvornik. He watches their “comings and goings” at their “crumbling” apartment building. Adam is the reason Daria ends up in the frozen tundra of Siberia.

Kommunalka is Russian for communal living. Four generations of these women lived that way. No privacy, and always feeling like someone will turn them into the authorities. Zoe is the outlier again, the only one living alone. But she stays close to the other three generations living together in Brighton Beach, a Brooklyn enclave where Russian Jews immigrated to.

Second Generation Alyssa : Zoe’s great-grandmother, in her eighties. Also referred to as Balissa and Baba. Zoe’s story kicks off in the Prologue in the apartment the three women share, with an ignored man, Deda, Alyssa’s husband. Zoe’s there to help pull off Baba’s forty-fifth anniversary party, but Baba doesn’t want one. Her daughter, Julia, Zoe’s mother who lives with them, insists they do. No one knows why Baba is adamantly against it. Her secret unravels for us. At the end, at the party, glimpsed by everyone who quietly gasp.

The party isn’t the only thing Baba is negative about. It’s everything, because she was with Daria in that brutal labor camp. The product of “terrible child-rearing,” she mostly blames the “entire political system of the USSR.” Today, this survivor is a silent, bitter soul, but through it all she’s maintained her dignity.

Third Generation Natasha : Alyssa’s daughter. Zoe’s grandmother or Baba. Born Natalia Nikolayevna. Blame is carried down: she blames her mother for doing nothing about “a genocidal regime.” “The Jewish problem” in the USSR meant she was denied entry into the university to study math, which she deserved. She shared an apartment with another family: Boris’. He’s accepting and focused on “commonplace things,” the complete opposite of Natasha, who inherits her mother’s bitterness and yearns to do something meaningful with her life. What could be more meaningful, and dangerous, than getting mixed up with a mission “to expose how the Soviet system brutalizes its people”?

Fourth Generation Julia : Zoe’s mother. Divorced. A “soft-spoken, conflict-adverse peacemaker,” unlike Julia’s mother Natasha.

Fifth Generation Zoe : Also called Zoya. Born Zoyenka. Confused about many things. Doesn’t want to dwell in the past. She’s the one who wants what we want: happiness and joy, in a career and romance, but that conflicts with what her family believes is best. An example of how this doll/ character is stuck in the in-between: “When I date American guys, I feel like I don’t fit in with them, and when I date Russian guys, I feel like they don’t fit in with me.”

There are many ways to describe the novel. One is that it’s a clarion call to activism, reminding us that “change can come only through action.”

According to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, it’s rare to uncover family records of Russian Jews as they simply don’t “exist”. So another way to describe what Alina Adams has most notably done is uncover one family’s record that feels awfully true.

Lorraine (EnchantedProse.com)

[Sara Gabai · Rating 4 out of 5]

up from 3.5 . interesting, loosely based on the author's life. some interesting aspects that are only explained at the very end

[Kristin · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first part made me very sad. I almost didn't want to continue, but it got better. I think I related best to the last section. I might add more to this review after our book club discussion.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome book. I read it in less than 24 hours.
I enjoyed this so much, because of the stark realism. When I was a kid, living in a 2 sq mi town with ethnic neighborhoods (even a 2 family Chinese one), we had so many Russian emigres, the First Wave came in as the Bolshevik revolution was ongoing until some time after it had finished. In the confusion over whether the White and Red Russian armies were fighting each other, or temporarily allied to fight a common enemy, escape was sometimes possible. Revolutions do take a while, after all. Then there were those who managed to escape in the confusion of the post WWII years when there were so many refugees that one more made little difference. There were the Hungarians, whose rebellion against the USSR in 1956 was brutally suppressed, some of whom managed to cross borders and leave. Tjey came here with next to nothing, learning English as adults. I took Russuan on high school, and I don't care which way you're going linguistically, the languages are so vastly different that it can be a real slog either way.
And their stories, which I asked to hear, were much the same as the stories of these 5 generations of women. I'm 68. I was 8, defending a 3 yr old neighbor from bullying, a little soul whose mother had died giving birth to her, and whose father - well, IMNSHO, her sperm donor - had run away. Her aunt didn't want a 3 year old cramping her style or her hunt for a rich man. Her grandmother was aged beyond her years from the tension of living under Communism and their escape to the US. I asked permission to be the little girl's unofficial big sister, and promised they would supervise me to their heart's content. All I asked in return was the grandmother's story of her escape. In my growing up years, I counted among my friends people from 3 to 97 years of age...most of them escapees from Communism.
Every "Bernie Bro" and like IDIOTS needs to read this book despite its being written from a female point of view. These young "democratic socialists" who have taken over one of our major political parties should read this. And stories of people from Cuba, N. Korea, China, Vietnam, Venezuela, and other Communist countries. Every one of them condemned Stalin and said THEY would "get socialism right." And nobody has ever succeeded.
Young people who hijack peaceful protests and turn them into riots, arson, beatings, murder, looting, over admittedly cops who are bad apples in a group that is otherwise laudatory, and who scream to defiund the police, are funded and led by admittedly "trained Marxists." Communists, in other words. They need to read about the NKVD & KGB in this book. No Communist regime escapes having secret police, and secret police make the worst, most corrupt cops in America look like pansies. They should be careful what they ask for. They just might get it.
Since our schools are now also run by Marxist trained educators - and since I got a teaching degree in elementary education in 1974, and they tried to brainwash me into being a Marxist (obviously, it didn't take, since I had been listening to why people left Communist countries all my life to that point and I knew better), I can say with assurance, having had more than half of the profs at this large (12,000 students back in the 1970s) public university preach Marxism at me, that Marxism has been inculcated into university education for decades before I matriculated. It has only gotten worse.
If you want to equip your kids with facts about Communism, this book - and others like it - should be required reading -or even listening if you prefer - for the entire family from 13 on up (there is some adult oriented content that is a necessary component of the story).
And the last section, Zoe, is hilarious, and, although this srory is about Jewish people and their persecution, Orthodox and Roman Catholic families were very similar in their dynamics...this book crosses cultureal and religious borders pn the maon theme - Communism fulfils the criteria of being a religion, the State Religion of every Communist country...which means, while persecution wasn't quite as bad for Catholics of either stripe, all other religions are persecuted in Communism. You worship the Party, infidels who insist on worshipping other deities will be suitably punished.
Please, take the time to read, to share, and after you're done, to seek books about those who have escaped N. Korea and Vietnam, as well as Cuba and Venezuela. Woth all its faults, I believe you can say, at the end of this book and kthers like it, Communi@m is worse. Makes me feel sorry for those poor sods who fought to get rid of the tsars and discovered that they had jumped from the frying pan into the fire with Communism.

[venticinque_lettori · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un po' troppo sentimentale per i miei gusti, ma scorre via in scioltezza.

[Desi A · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not that I expected to dislike it, but I ended up enjoying the book more than I thought I would at the outset.

The parallelism between the three generations is obvious, yes (and the voice occasionally grating), but I liked how the author pulled it all together.

[Helene]

Meh..

[Maria Kuznetsova · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel moves deftly from Odessa to Siberia to Brighton Beach, following three bold, sharp, and thoughtful women from three different generations of the same family as they navigate challenges as different as Soviet labor camps to dating a "suitable" man in New York. Though their stories were different, they all involved compelling love triangles, which made this book quite a page turner. While I loved the details of Daria's survival under the Soviet regime, and Natasha's unexpected plans for immigration, I most related to Zoe, who, though she was "American" by many counts, never quite felt like she fit in. A moving, entertaining, and fast-paced read!

[Dona · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story, covering three generations of women, begins in Odessa USSR (now Ukraine) in 1931 and concludes in Brighton Beach at the current time with the character of Zoe, who is the great great granddaughter of the first character. If I had one complaint of this novel it would be that I wanted to know more about the characters. I think I could have read a book each on each one, their lives and experiences were so intriguing. Living in Russia under communist rule was harrowing. And if you were a Russian Jew it was even worse.