Thanks for the free NetGalley review copy!

I really enjoyed the story overall. I like when young kids and old people form unlikely friendships. I was a little hesitant of the use of a 10yo as the narrator. It can be hard to empathize as an adult. It worked just fine in this book. There were a few parts of the book where the pacing dropped and, for me, this specific topic of historical fiction isn't the most interesting. But a solid 4-star read in my opinion! I'd definitely be interested in reading other books by Littell.

Leon is a precocious ten year old boy existing within the confines of 1950’s communist USSR. Through happenstance he gains the friendship of an elderly, and seemingly important, Politburo member. His visits with the old man, Comrade Koba, ensure Leon will satisfy both his intellectual curiosity as well as a fetish for vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce while the old man regales the boy with his memories of the revolution and the Great War.
At times Koba’s reminiscences of USSR political history can be hard to wade through but when the narrative focuses on fearless Leon, his friends, or his engaging relationship with cantankerous Koba, this is an engaging and enjoyable read.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read an ARC of this book! I won a copy from the BookExpo PW Galley Grab, and I didn't have any particular expectations for the book prior to reading it. I'm still not totally sure what to make of it. There were some aspects I enjoyed, such as the narrative voice of the main narrator, Leon. I found him endearing and I was curious to learn more about him. I enjoyed reading about his adventures and his meetings with Koba. I was a bit confused as to why a few chapters were narrated from the perspective of Leon's friend Isabeau, since I didn't feel like it contributed much to the story to switch perspectives. Her voice and character needed to be more fleshed out in order for the perspective shifting to work. I'm also not totally sure what the point of the book was. It was a cute story in some ways, and gave some insights into the time period in Stalinist Russia, but I'm not sure it was particularly meaningful. I think if it had been longer and fleshed out more, it would have been more successful. Not a bad book, overall, but there was nothing that particularly stood out about it either.

Thank you Net Galley, the author and Overlook Press/Abrams the publisher for the Advanced Reading Copy of this book.

To the best of my knowledge, I have not previously read any books by ROBERT LITTELL. Based on my exceedingly pleasant experience with COMRADE KOBA, there will be a lot more reading in the future.
The story takes place in Moscow, Russia between 1949 and 1953.

The primary narrator is Leon Rozental who is about 10 to 14 years old. His father David was a prominent nuclear physicist who died in a nuclear reaction accident while developing Russia’s nuclear weapons. His mother was Anastasia a well-respected heart doctor in Moscow’s best hospital. She is arrested early in the story for plotting to poison Joseph Stalin, the dictator of the Soviet Union.

A co-narrator is one of Leon’s best friends, a girl named Isabeau who is about a year older than Leon. Her chapters are few. Twin boys Pavel and Vladimir are also featured as characters but not narrators. They all live in a huge apartment block called the House on the Embankment (a real place) where most of the residents are prominent Russian elite. All of the kids are parentless but not all the parents are dead. Some are under arrest which means not likely to return. All of them are Jewish. Included among the residents is Joseph Stalin’s daughter Svetlana. Nikita Khrushchev was also a resident. The building has lots of secret rooms and passages of which the kids make full use.

Leon Rozental is extremely smart. He has taught himself “American” by reading the book “Catcher in the Rye”. When he writes or speaks, you can see that book’s influence through his usage of words.

Through his wanderings in the building, Leon discovers a room as big as an airplane hangar. Near the far end is a group of uniformed men with their weapons. The men are playing chess and the weapons are stacked along a wall. Leon walks over to them and after a brief discussion and search, he is allowed to stay. An old man appears and invites Leon to come upstairs for some vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce. Thus begins once of the most unusual friendships in modern literature.

The book is told as a series of conversations between the old man and Leon. Isabeau does not believe that Leon has this friendship. They discuss nuclear research, Judaism, purges, literature, movies. Eventually, the old man begins giving Leon big bundles of cash that the kids use to buy food.

In a startling finale, many questions are resolved. This is a wonderful story told by a gifted writer. If you are a fan of THE GENTLEMAN FROM MOSCOW, then this is a must read. If you are a fan of history, this is a must read. If you are a fan of good writing, this is a must read. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! If I could give more than 5 Stars, I would do so. This not a lengthy book being well under 200 pages.

GO! BUY! READ!

The author lost me right from the beginning with the narrator sounding like a 21st century American pre-teen, rather than a Russian child from another era. What finally made me delete the book from my reader was the word "humongous", an American term that only came into existence in 1972, certainly not at the time the story takes place, and worse, "humongouser". A search of the book shows frequent use of such terms.

I'm not picking on these two words alone. They merely exemplify the problem I had reading this: the voice lacks any semblance of being that of a mid-20th century Russian child from the very first sentence. I understand that he is merely trying to present the personality of a young boy and, writing in English, takes some liberties with the vernacular instead of using stilted language that is meant to mimic a literal translation from Russian. But he goes way too much overboard in trying to pander to an American readership, so that his character, and therefore the narrative, loses all credibility right from the start. I've read previous books by this author, and the writing never pandered like this.

Abandoned after the first chapter.

I was lucky enough to win an e galley of Robert Littell's Comrade Koba through a Shelf Awareness giveaway. Thank you for the early look, and have a happy and healthy holiday weekend!