Leaving Russia: A Jewish Story (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780815610243)

Leaving Russia: A Jewish Story is a memoir of coming-of-age and struggling to leave the USSR. Shrayer chronicles the triumphs and humiliations of a Soviet childhood and expresses the dreams and fears of a Jewish family that never gave up its hopes for a better life. Narrated in the tradition of Tolstoy's confessional trilogy and Nabokov's autobiography, this is a searing account of the KGB's persecution of refuseniks, a poet's rebellion against totalitarian culture, and Soviet fantasies of the West during the Cold War. Shrayer's remembrances are set against a rich backdrop of politics, travel, and ethnic conflict on the brink of the Soviet empire's collapse. His story offers generous doses of humor and tenderness, counterbalanced with longing and violence. Leaving Russia is a love story in which a young Jew's love is unrequited and his heart is forever broken by his homeland.

Author: Maxim D. Shrayer
ISBN-10: 0815610246
ISBN-13: 9780815610243
Publisher: Syracuse University Press
Language: English
Published: 12/03/2013
Pages: 346
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.40lbs
Size: 9.20h x 6.20w x 1.20d
Award: National Jewish Book Award - Finalist