This story is very sad but the author is able to convey hope in her writing. This book contains a lot of information that is not often spoken about in history classes about the Soviet Union and the relationship between the United States and Russia at that time. So much of this book shines a light on the injustices that many in Soviet citizens suffered. Readers will easily see the hypocrisy that Flora, and later Lenny, refuse to see and will see parallels in both the Soviet and American political systems. I really enjoyed reading the novel but I was a bit frustrated when the book ended and I was still left with unanswered questions. That being said, I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a great historical novel.

This book just wasn't for me. Good writing but I am not a political person and it just got to be too much. I will not be posting a review anywhere as I do not like to post negative feedback just because it wasn't a type of book I personally enjoy. Thank you for the opportunity!

This story is about a naïveté young Jewish girl from New York who imagines that she wants to go live in Communist Russia in the 1930's. She has no idea how brutal the land or its' people really are. She has a son who is deserted in an orphanage when she is sent to prison camp. When she gets older she goes back to America to live and she tries to adjust living in a free country again.
You will have to read it for yourself to see how Communist Russia really is and how blessed we are to live in America

A great book for those who like historical fiction. Florence leaves America for Russia in 1933. On the steamer heading east, she notices the immigrants heading back home like she was “watching an old Ellis Island film reel flipped by the Depression into reverse: masses of immigrants returning to the ship, being herded backwards through the great human warehouse as Lady Liberty waved them goodbye”.

This is a big book, taking on three generations from Florence through her grandson. The book isn't told in a linear fashion, but jumps forwards and backwards.

Florence is a sympathetic character. Foolhardy, big on ideas but not practical. Her decisions come back to haunt not only her and her son, Julian, who spends 7 years in an orphanage while his mother is sent to a work camp, but many others. Julian comes back to Russia to work for a partnership with a Russian oil company. Born in Russia, he is the only true American in mindset, as he struggles with the graft and corruption in the oil industry. He also struggles with the truths he learns about his mother. The only character I had no sympathy for was Leonard, her grandson. A real jerk who thinks he's better than he is, he returns to Russia trying to make his first million before he's 35.

Krasikov does a great job of describing each era, from the Stalin regime to 2008 with its capitalist overtones. She's done her research and it shows. The book alternates between a sly humor and then true fear. “Purges and politics aside, there was plenty of fun to be had in Moscow in 9134.” But the same bureaucracy that was made fun of in the earlier years becomes scary as hell just a few years later. And it's so interesting to see that the war years were the years the Russian Jews felt safe.

The author occasionally uses Julian to give the reader a sense of history, as with the story of Joseph Davies, the US Ambassador during the late 1930s. Some might not care for this approach, but I liked it. It gave you an unbiased sense of what Florence and Leon were dealing with. I learned a lot about The Soviet Union, especially the Stalin years. Extremely well written.

As an interesting little side note, the chapters are labeled with passport stamps, giving you the city and year. It’s a neat touch.

My thanks to netgalley and Random House for an advance copy of this book.

Loved it this book. Tough read because of the idealism the propels the main character to go to the Soviet Union in 1934 for freedom and the future. The first fourth of the book I was not particularly hooked. The strands of each generation of Florence Fein's family and their relationship with Russia and the USA (and where do they belong?) seemed disparate and the narrative choppy. The story does come together, and by the end of the book, the relationships between the three generations and the impact of personal decisions they made in political contexts were very moving.