“A bold and original literary portrait of an artist trapped between genius and terror.”—Literaturnaya Gazeta 

“Yakhina writes cinema into prose—Eisen unfolds like a film made of words.”—Novaya Gazeta  

“Not a biography, but an act of artistic resurrection.”—Afisha Daily

Praise for A Volga Tale

“[A] rich epic...Yakhina charts the brutal decades of Stalin's collectivization and repression, and creates a moving portrait of the teacher's profound love for his family, and of Russia's multiethnic population.”—The New Yorker, The Best Books of 2023

“In sumptuous scenes...Ms. Yakhina’s Volga merges with the Magdalena that flows through Gabriel García Márquez’s fiction. Magic trumps realism.”—Boyd Tonkin, Wall Street Journal

“Yakhina’s novel shows how one eccentric dreamer manages, at least temporarily, to avoid the brutal forces of collectivization...darkly brooding.”—The New York Times

“Guzel Yakhina’s masterstroke is her decision to allow us to witness the tumult taking place in Gnadenthal through the eyes of her beloved creation Bach, whose entrenched apathy becomes the focal point around which all else follows.”—Elaine Margolin, World Literature Today

“Steeped in the human history of the Russian Empire, the Bolshevik Revolution, and the Soviet regime, Guzel Yakhina’s magnificent novel A Volga Tale matches the power and majesty of that great river.”—On the Seawall

“The larger narrative is itself shaped by folkloric forces ... offset by darkly brooding interludes.”—Alida Becker for The New York Times

“Both Gannon’s translation and Yakhina’s writing are undeniably brilliant. Sentences are rich with description and characterization, and replete with atmosphere. This is a wonderfully quirky novel, at times humorous, at times dark with fear and terror, and interspersed with themes of human resilience.”—Janice Ottersberg, Historical Novels Review

“A Volga Tale is a rich, fantastical, and often disquieting historical novel in which a man who’s obsessed with language inhabits a country that’s been devastated by war and corruption.”—Michele Sharpe, Foreword Reviews

“A delightfully translated novel combining fairy tale and historical fiction in a fully satisfying story of a misfit struggling to sustain life in a perilous time.”—Reading the West

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