I received a review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley for my honest review. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

"Redemption" focuses on the aftermath of WWII in Russia. While I was intrigued by the premise and some of the themes, the writing style just wasn't for me and the characters didn't really seem to get any relatable growth.

Friedrich Gorenstein was a Soviet Jewish writer who fell foul of the Soviet censors for his refusal to toe the party line, and eventually fled to Berlin where he could at last publish his novels. This new translation of Redemption into English comes 50 years after it was written and opens up a particular time and place in the Ukraine. The book opens on New Years’ Eve 1946. The war is over and the Germans have at last been ousted from the small Ukrainian town which they had occupied. But conditions are still harsh, with food and accommodation scarce, and oppression and persecution from the Soviet authorities in full swing. Sashenka is an angry and resentful 16-year-old, who attacks her mother for forging a new relationship instead of being faithful to her husband’s memory for his service to the motherland in the war. In a fit of pique she denounces her mother for stealing leftover food from where she works – even though this food was for Sashenka herself. The parallels with the case of Pavel Morozov would be obvious to any Russian. In 1932 Morozov, a 13-year-old boy, denounced his father and thus became a Soviet hero. But Sashenka doesn’t denounce her mother for ideological reasons – she acts out of teenage spite. She’s a particularly unpleasant girl, but seems to be approaching some sort of redemption when she falls in love with a Jewish officer who has been tasked with disinterring the bodies of his family, killed by their neighbours, in order to give them a decent burial. The novel’s particular historical interest lies in its exploration of the collaboration between the Ukrainian and the Nazis and their willingness to help with the rounding-up and slaughter of the local Jews – apparently without any real motive. It’s a look into the heart of darkness and the evil, Gorenstein suggests, that is inherent in the human psyche. There are many biblical references and some lengthy and discursive philosophical passages in the book (shades of Dostoevsky) that slow down the narrative and for me added nothing, but I was invested in the novel overall and eager to find out how it all works out. Perhaps the philosophical passages needed more attention than I felt inclined to give them. It’s a disturbing and bleak book, with very little hope, although Gorenstein might be suggesting there is some by his ending (which I won’t reveal). I found the atmosphere of this immediate post-war period evocatively and vividly portrayed, and how the consequences of the wartime atrocities are going to linger for a long time particularly depressing. This is a book for anyone interested in Russian literature, but perhaps not so much the general reader. The excellent introduction I found very helpful and pretty essential reading. Anyone coming cold to the book would probably find it problematic on many levels. I’m very happy to have discovered it, though, and grateful, yet again, to NetGalley.

Nabokov repudiated Soviet literature. I often agree.  Much of it is badly-written,  as well as painful.  The purges, the violence, the informers, starvation, lying, censorship etc., can topple the sturdiest narrative.

Columbia University Press recently published the first English translation of Friedrich Gorenstein’s "Redemption, "which was written in 1967. Gorenstein, a Soviet Jewish author, left the Soviet Union and moved to  Berlin to publish his work.

This novel is historically important, but, alas, was not my kind of thing.

I found the writing very rough, and have no idea whether it’s Gorenstein or  the translator Andrew Bromfield.  Sometimes it is Bromfield.  I tired of awkward sentences like the following:  “For the first time in many months, Sashenka fell asleep calmly on that night, beside Oksanka, who was sleeping, pink from her bath; and for the first time, Sashenka dreamed calmly and clearly of her beloved.”

The book centers on Sashenka, a stupid, vicious 16-year-old girl who, after quarreling with her mother, who works as a dishwasher, reports her to the authorities for stealing leftover food from work.  Her mother goes to prison. Sashenka doesn’t give her mother a thought.  And even after seeing atrocities, after working with a team of people who dig up bodies from mass graves to be carted away to a different site, she cares only about her new boyfriend. Eventually she has a baby, but she doesn’t change:  near the end of the book she threatens to report a professor and his  wife as enemies of the state.

What a terrifying, dangerous time!

I disliked this book from start to finish.  Why did I finish it?

Mostly, I think about the Holocaust as it affected German and Polish people who died because of their religion, their profession as intellectuals or their refusal to pay homage to Hitler. Redemption is a novel that educated my general knowledge of what happened in Stalinist Russia after the war when the Germans left.

Life continued to be a challenge without any organized government administration, a lack of food, no jobs, and people maintaining distrust of Jews and in general, each other. The lead character of this novel written in 1967, by Friedrich Gorenstein a Soviet Jew who eventually lived in exile in Berlin is Sashenko. Sasha is resentful of everyone, especially her mother. She bitterly resents anyone who has one morsel more of a better life than she. Sasha's hatred symbolizes the continuing misery of life in Stalin's Russia.

The poverty described is heartbreaking as is the lack of medical care and any authority who can help a person even buy a train ticket to exit from the hell the population continues to endure. Redemption is an essential novel for all time, and perhaps, particularly striking in today's world of lack of tolerance for anyone different than ourselves.

I received an advanced copy of this novel from the publisher through NetGalley.

There is an incredible cultural gap between this book and an American reader. The raw, desperate existence of Russian civilians attempting to heal and create some sort of a new life post-WWII is the most poignant and graspable element. The long philosophical passages are cerebral and often dry. I suspect that, in the original Russian text, there may be a more fluid connection between these passages and the overall climate of the story in the spots where they occur. In English, they aren’t terribly effective.

Overall, Redemption is at least a reminder to an American reader that for many, the War didn’t end with ticker tape parades and a newfound time of prosperity and high national morale. I can see this book in college and university classrooms and libraries as well as on the home shelves of historians and World Literature collectors. For a specific strata of the reading community, it is certainly a worthwhile read.

This is a difficult book to read, even if you consider yourself braced for historical fiction based on the Holocaust. This book sheds light on a subject many avoid: just because the war ended in September 1945, all wasn’t fair, humane, or documented for years to come in many of the countries affected by the war.
Russia was one of these countries. It suffered greatly under Stalin’s police state after the war. Food, shelter and human rights were no more honored than during the height of the Jewish extermination of previous years. In power until his death in 1953, there are volumes of horror stories of those who endured the anti-Semitic dictatorship and major famine throughout.
Redemption tells the story of Sashenka, a spoiled, self-centered teenage girl who, during a fit of anger, reports her mother for stealing morsels of food, even though her mother was doing this for Sashenka’s own health and sake. Surrounded by cruelty, evil, sadness, and desperation, Sashenka must face her own demons while trying to understand how to feel care, love and devotion in a world where none exists. Somewhat difficult to read, this book exposes the emotions of those who survive war and healing. Similar to the emotions of the child who dissected the frog in school: cruel, hypnotic, engrossing, challenging, and now, pointless. That’s a pretty crappy comparison, but I’ve lived a comfortable life in comparison to this author and the people he brings back to life in his works.
This book could easily be based on fact and actual events, and in many ways, I feel sure that it is. Redemption was written in 1967 but never published. Friedrich Gorenstein had to immigrate to Berlin before his works could be published. He knew firsthand the horrors of the Stalinist dictatorship, having lost his father to execution ordered and conducted under Stalin’s leadership.
(I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review. Thank you to Columbia University Press for making it available.)

Friedrich Gorenstein was a Russian screenwriter who emigrated to Berlin during the Cold War era, and wrote the screenplay for Andrei Tarkovsky's Solaris. Gorenstein was also a novelist, and considered fiction his most important work although he didn't seek publication until late in life for political reasons. 'Redemption' begins in 1945, when a small Ukrainian town is liberated from Nazi occupation. Sashenka, the novel's protagonist, has lost her father to war and blames her mother, reporting her to the authorities for stealing food. Bitter and resentful, Sashenka is an unlikely heroine; but amid so much poverty and suffering, how could she be otherwise? When Sashenka falls in love with a Jewish lieutenant whose entire family has been slain by a neighbourhood killer, she begins her own path to redemption. Gorenstein's lengthy diatribes on the nature of good and evil are reminiscent of Dostoevsky. At turns magical, dreamlike and horrific, this is a difficult novel to follow, although for many Russians who lived through World War II - Gorenstein among them - the narrative may be all too real.

Redemption by Friedrich Gorenstein and translated by Andrew Bromfield is a novel of life after the WWII in the soviet Union. Gorenstein was born in Kiev, was a Soviet Jewish writer and screenwriter who collaborated with Andrei Tarkovsky on Solaris (1972), among other works. His father was arrested during Stalin’s purges and later shot. Unable to publish in the Soviet Union, Gorenstein emigrated to Berlin, where he lived until his death. Bromfield is an acclaimed translator of contemporary Russian writers such as Victor Pelevin and Boris Akunin. He has also translated Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace.

This is a book where the introduction is important to understanding the the story. Granted, many people know about the Famine in 1946, but there is more going on the book. There play on Stalin's name and the Soviet denial or rather ignorance of the holocaust. The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact commonly called the Nazi-Soviet Pact aligned the Soviets with the and their Nazi's death camps. The Soviet government chose to ignore the reality of their actions. Also, the pact caused the Soviet Union to be caught off guard for the German invasion. The advancing Germans showed no mercy to Soviet Jews in their path.

Sashenka is not a very likable character. She is selfish and vengeful (against her mother). The war most certainly took a toll on her but she lets her vanity guide her. Her father was killed in the war and she mentions that often seemingly more for others to feel sorry for her loss. She shows no loyalty to the Soviet government but only to herself. So, it is not a story by a misguided patriot. The war is over and things are tough for everyone and now there is grisly work to be done. An interesting book that for obvious reasons was not published in the Soviet Union even after Khrushchev denounced Stalin. A well written and haunting book that reflects the feelings in Soviet Union after the war and life under Stalin's rule.

I considered leaving a review but in the end decided to be honest: it's not "my book". I think the writing style is good, although I'm not sure the translation can do justice to the original (I know people who are/speak Russian, and they say that Russian has words/meanings you just can't translate without losing the "hidden meaning" - not sure if that's correct). The setting after the war is special and I'm not sure younger people will get it in its extense, but it's interesting. My personal problem, and that's why I skipped through the book after the first half, is the lead, Sashenka. For sure a reader doesn't have to connect with the characters but you need something that makes you at least ok to continue, and for me there wasn't any in regards to her. Maybe this really starts with the translations what made her "shout" whenever she talked, I don't know. But this is a personal distaste.

Many thanks to the publisher for providing the copy of this book! I'm sure others won't have this same issue!