The Dissident
A Novel
by Paul Goldberg
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Pub Date 06 Jun 2023 | Archive Date 31 Jul 2023
Description
"Crime and Punishment—for the Jews! Paul Goldberg's newest is a dead-serious, dead-funny, no-he-didn't marvel." —Joshua Cohen, author of The Netanyahus
A thrilling, witty, and slyly original Cold War mystery about a ragtag group of Jewish refuseniks in Moscow.
On his wedding day in 1976, Viktor Moroz stumbles upon a murder scene: two gay men, one of them a US official, are axed to death in Moscow. Viktor, a Jewish refusenik, is stuck in Russia due to the government’s denial of his application to leave for Israel; he sits “in refusal” alongside his wife and their community of intellectuals, Jewish and not. But then the KGB spots Viktor leaving the murder scene. Plucked off the street, he’s given a choice: find the real murderer or become the suspect of convenience. His deadline is nine days later, when Henry Kissinger is arriving in Moscow. Ax murders, it seems, aren’t good for politics.
A whip-smart, often hilarious Cold War thriller, Paul Goldberg’s The Dissident explores what it means to survive in the face of impossible choices and monumental consequences. To solve the case, Viktor ropes in his community, which includes his banned-text-distributing wife, a hard-drinking sculptor, a Russian priest of Jewish heritage, and a visiting American intent on reliving World War II heroics. As Viktor struggles to figure out whom to trust, he’s forced to question not only the KGB’s murky motives but also those of his fellow refuseniks—and the man he admires above all: the Secretary of State himself.
Immersive, unpredictable, and always ax-sharp, The Dissident is Cold War intrigue at its most inventive: an uncompromising look at sacrifice, community, and the scars of history and identity, from an expert storyteller.
Advance Praise
"Crime and Punishment—for the Jews! Paul Goldberg's newest is a dead-serious, dead-funny, no-he-didn't marvel."
—Joshua Cohen, author of The Netanyahus
"The Dissident is a murder mystery, a love story, a diplomatic thriller, and a glimpse into a pivotal moment in Soviet history. But most of all it is a joy. An incandescent conjuring of Moscow in the 1970s full of dark humor, vodka, smoked fish, and choices no one should be forced to make, The Dissident is a hilarious and erudite novel brimming over with life."
—Michael David Lukas, author of The Last Watchman of Old Cairo
"The Dissident is Gorky Park written by Milan Kundera if he had ever developed a sense of humor and if everyone he knew was Jewish and Russian. Goldberg crafts an unexpected and fully original Cold War mystery with a force of knowledge about his subject that runs so deep he is able to forget the details and use it for dramatic purposes the way a musician forgets the instrument and focuses on the music. What’s so impressive is how he reins in all that understanding with a mature hand, selects a clear destination, and makes real dramatic and fun choices along the way while improvising like a jazz master. In one way it’s a highfalutin and wild ride. But the simplicity and harmony of a good novel is never lost. The Dissident is a brilliant dose of the humanist compassion we all need right now because it brings us closer to ourselves and helps us deal with that particularly tragic problem."
—Derek B. Miller, author How to Find Your Way in the Dark
"Paul Goldberg’s love letter to samizdat is a hilarious, anarchic tour through Soviet era Moscow and the absurd negotiations required to survive. Tense and witty, scathing yet affectionate, this wonderfully overstuffed rollercoaster is a perceptive and wise snapshot of refusenik life during the Cold War. Somewhere, Bulgakov is smiling."
—Mark Sarvas, author of Memento Park
"Everything in this remarkably engaging, fast-paced, ingeniously plotted and, in all, beautifully wrought book—by turns funny and heartbreaking—rings true, because everything in it IS true. It is, above all else, an impeccably authentic fictionalized testimony. This is indeed the Soviet Union of my youth, and these—the book's protagonists—are the heroes of my youthful imagination back then, as a young 'refusenik' and literary dissident myself: the enormously strong, fearless people, staunchly REFUSING to be the meekly unfree subjects of a heartless, lawless, cynical and indifferently cruel totalitarian regime. The parallels with present day Russia drawn in this novel are inevitable and uncanny. It is an essential reading for our times."
—Mikhail Iossel, author of Every Hunter Wants to Know
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9781250208590 |
| PRICE | $28.00 (USD) |
| PAGES | 432 |
