Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

The Last and the First by Nina Berberova is the translated version of the author's debut novel. The story revolves around Ilya, whose family emigrated from Russia to France after the Russian Revolution. They've made new lives for themselves in a new country. Now, Ilya's brother Vasya is presented with the opportunity to return to Russia. What will the family decide to do? Will they stay in France or return to Russia?

Here is a descriptive excerpt from Chapter 1:

"Now he was blind, and that same Astrakhan cap had slipped over his shaggy eyebrows. A dark blue scar ran across his face, and he had no beard growing on his cheeks; you could tell a regimental doctor had once mended his face in haste, slapping together the torn pieces of his no longer young, swarthy skin. He was tall and ominously thin, and his military trousers sported red patches in many places - possibly scraps from someone else's service trousers, but French, trousers that had once known the defense of Verdun."

Overall, The Last and the First is a work of Russian emigre fiction that will appeal to fans of classic literature, like War and Peace or Anna Karenina. Unfortunately, I was not interested in any of the characters and nothing seemed to be happening in the story. I made it to the halfway point before losing interest and wondering if I should just skip the rest and read the next book on my TBR list. If you're intrigued by the excerpt above, or if you're a fan of books in translation in general, you can check out this book, which is available now.

Thank you for providing me with an arc. I found the novel to be overall quite thoughtful and thought-provoking! I wasn’t sure this would be as good as it was and it exceeded my expectations. I am definitely looking forward to what this author is going to put our next! Thank you for providing me with an arc. I found the novel to be overall quite thoughtful and thought-provoking! I wasn’t sure this would be as good as it was and it exceeded my expectations. I am definitely looking forward to what this author is going to put our next!

The book felt inconsistent: some parts were very poetic, some just plain confusing with too many characters and confusing plot.

I found the plot fascinating- refugees of the Russian Revolution in France and their coming to terms with their new lives. The book focusses on the Gorbatov family, with the eldest son, Ilya, working towards resettling more Russians in the Provencal countryside, and helping them with learning to adapt to a life of farming- even if this wasn't something they were used to. The title refers to Russians affected by the Russian Revolution- the last to leave, and the first to only know life post the Revolution. Ilya has his hands full with preventing his younger brother from returning to Russia, and dealing with his misplaced idealism. It's an interesting context but I can't really recommend this book. I found the book very slow going with several unnecessary characters who didn't really add anything to the story. I'm really grateful to Pushkin Press for the excellent translations they put out, of authors who should be more well known. This book is not one I enjoyed, however.

Thank you Pushkin Press for the chance to read the ARC of "The Last and the First" by Nina Berberova and for providing readers with access to more women in translation.

Unfortunately, this title was not for me. I found it a somewhat muddled and confusing example of Russian literature. Despite some previous knowledge of common themes and tropes, it was hard to follow and to enjoy. This would perhaps be better suited for experts of Russian literature who wish to delve deeper into the field, rather than general readers.

What a disappointment this was. I’m a student of Russian and Russian history and I’ve read a lot of Russian literature. I know my way around and can recognise the themes, preoccupations and tropes of Russian books. But this one had me confused and bewildered, even though I knew the context. How anyone without at least some background knowledge could enjoy this, I really don’t know. I always hesitate to “blame” a translation, especially when the translator is such an eminent one as Marian Schwartz. And indeed perhaps it actually is the original at fault, but nevertheless the translation was so clumsy at times that it really put me off. The novel follows a family of Russian émigrés in the 1920s torn between making a life in France or returning to Russia, a Russia that now in fact no longer exists, at a time when the future of the new Soviet Union is still unsettled and insecure. Some want to stay and in a nod to Tolstoy want to return to the land and become farmers. Others are tempted to go back. But motivations on both side are unclear, characterisation is weak and as unconvincing as the dialogue – though recognisably Russian. Written in exile, I had the feeling the novel was probably expressing Berberova’s own conflicts, but she doesn’t make it easy for the reader to identify with the characters. It might have helped to have an introduction; in fact it seems to me that an introduction is pretty much essential when presenting such a flawed novel. Come on Pushkin Press – you can do better than this. As a Russophile I’m glad I’ve read it, but as a book lover I really can’t recommend it.

I'm not sure if its me of the translation of this book. But the writing is so painful to get through in my opinion. there would be moments where I wasn't completely understanding who was the narrator or what was going on in the story. sadly I just couldn't make myself push through the rest of this.

I'm a keen reader of Russian literature in translation but have never previously read any of NIna Berberova's works. After I'd read various reviews and the publishers' blurb for this novel, I was very keen to read "The Last and the First", and I thank the publisher and Netgalley for giving me the ebook version of it in exchange for this honest review.

The novel involves life for some Russian emigres in France after the Bolshevik revolution. Fortunately, I am aware of the Russian disposition, the naming patterns and grammatical structure, and have studied the history of this period, but I believe that anyone coming to this novel without some of this might be quite challenged.

The first paragraph introduces two siblings and their "step-brother". However, the step-brother's patronymic immediately suggests that the three share a father, and thus he could well be their "half-brother". This is, in fact, hinted at much later in the chapter, and confirmed in Chapter 2. But if I’d not been reading to review, I’d have given up on the book in frustration by then because, without knowing the siblings' relationship from the outset, the early narrative was virtually incomprehensible.

As an "English English" speaker, I found some of the translated prose very awkward, as though it had been written by a non-native English speaker. The complex Russian sentence structure does not easily lend itself to direct translation into English. In my opinion, the translator might have considered opting for more natural English prose, rather than attempting to stay closer to the Russian prose style.

The plot is full of suspense, and kept me keen to read on, once I'd sorted out the relationships between the characters. At the end, however, I experienced more suspense than I would have liked, given that the author left several loose ends ...

This edition would benefit from a fuller introduction including relevant historical background and a chronology, and details, for example, of Russian naming patterns and diminutives. A detailed list of characters, with their salient points, would also be invaluable for the reader.

Thank you netgalley for providing an ARC in exchange for a review

I was excited to read this book because the summary sounded interesting, but I was disappointed.
Some parts were poetic, but overall I wasn't a big fan of the prose (but it could also be linked to the translation), but most importantly I struggled to keep track of who was who, how the characters were linked and what was happening to them.

I read this book during an intense period at work, that I might be missing a lot while reading it. I was excited when I read the description of the story that it tells the chronicle of Russian exiles in France after the establishment of the Soviet Union, but it seems to be not my kind of book. Perhaps I'll try to reread it again in the future and see if I'll have any changes of thought.

Thanks NetGalley and Pushkin Press for providing the electronic advance reading copy.

I am unsure if its the translation that's amiss or the overall presentation in itself but the book didn't work for me. At its heart, the story is about a family wanting to go back. The meandering conversation that goes back and forth has perhaps some social and cultural significance but unfortunately the context is missing.

From an author who is relatively unknown to western readers, its rather unfortunate not to have enjoyed her translated work. Hope I can find something else by her in future.

<i>Thank you to Netgalley and Pushkin Press for providing me with a free copy of this e-book in exchange for an honest review. </i>

Thank you to Netgalley and Pushkin Press for sending me an advanced copy.

DNF at 40%.

I think part of the reason I didn't get on with this book is because of my lack of knowledge of the time and place the novel was set in - this made a lot of the actions of the characters not make sense to me when I felt like they were supposed to be significant but I just didn't understand why and I, therefore, didn't really appreciate the story and found it a bit confusing as well. I liked some of the writing on a sentence level, but it just wasn't enough to keep me interested and I didn't have any inclination to pick it back up after I'd put it down.

I'd like to thank Pushkin Press for this free ARC, and for taking the initiative to translate this debut work from a female author whose influence is not widely known in the Western world.

Regrettably, I cannot recommend this book, and would go so far as to say I do not think it will be well received if published in its current form. I chose to read this as I enjoy Russian writing, and was surprised at how low the ratings for this book were on GoodReads. Given the current users did not write reviews on GoodReads, I figured perhaps this ARC was being misrepresented by ARC reviewers, and I thought I would come and support this story. However, I only ended up confirming the consensus.

Frankly, I think this story will be incoherent to a Western audience. My understanding is that this is a story about uncertainty surrounding which family members from a Russian farm want to emigrate to Paris. One farmer stays ("A First", leaving their homeland for something new) and two return to Russia ("Last", returning to Russia). If that doesn't sound underwhelming enough, it was not entirely clear to me what the motivation for them leaving is, nor what the threat a character called Adolf Alexeivitch or Kellerman is posing to one of the farmers, Vasya, in emigrating to France. A lot of this, I think, is due to the content of the story itself. The Translator's Note suggests this is due to Russians wanting to flee the Revolution and Civil War, but the story does not seem to go heavily into detail on this, or it is so fleetingly mentioned that it was not obvious to me from this translation. If anything, the motivation of the farmers' emigration seems to be that they want to marry people in the other locations.

A big clue for why I think this story will be unenjoyable is the second sentence, as reproduced verbatim below:

"Alexei Ivanovich Shaibin, one of its many heroes, turned up at the Gorbatovs'; Vasya, the Gorbatov son, offspring of Stepan Vasilievich and Vera Kirillovna and stepbrother of Ilya Stepanovich, received a letter from Paris, from his friend Adolf Kellerman, with important news about Vasya's father; and finally, a poor wayfarer and his guide arrived at the Gorbatovs' farm in a broad valley of the Vaucluse."

This sentence introduces far too much at once. The problem is there are too many redundant characters and relationships in this story — it is arguably the entire content of the story. It is difficult for Western readers to remember these names, and it gets more complicated when many characters go by multiple names. For instance, it was not immediately obvious to me that Alyusha, Shaibin, and Alexei Ivanovich were the same person, and it is not clear why multiple references were needed. There is also nothing memorable about the personality or motivations of any characters in this story.

Another major issue that compounds this initial issue, particularly with this translation, is that pronouns aren't clarified enough for us to know who is talking or about whom people are talking. There will be 3 names mentioned and then 'he' in the sentence, and because nobody actively does anything in the story the emphasis is not enough for readers to infer who is being referenced.

There are relatively few typographical errors, the most systematic is a random space added before or after quotation marks, and sometimes in the middle of words. However, it was alarming that these were found in the main quotable sentences of the text, responsible for the story's title:
"He re he is, this first among firsts, was what occurred to him. "
"Wh at kind of man was he? He was a "last," as Nyusha put it".

Finally, I mean no disrespect, but to me I think the translation reads like broken English. One can tell from picking any paragraph of this book that it is a translation. That I found Ayn Rand's Anthem more fluent than this indicates the translation might not be best conveying the author's writing ability to a Western audience. I'd also think this translation could generally be made simpler for Western readers given the complexity of the characters and writing style already. It could also be given more cultural context, as sentences about one's homeland and seeing freedom as a negative... I think these could be better supported with more cultural context. For example, I read the debut translation of The Impudent Ones earlier this year and the translator made clear in the introduction that due to the already ambiguous nature of the story (similar to what we have here) they had added and modified content to make it more coherent. I think the same approach would make this better received, but that may be down to the preferences of the translator.

This truly is one of those “it’s me, not the book” situations because the book itself was wonderfully written, I just could not get into the story and therefore did not care about the story either. While I am giving this book a low rating I do not think it’s a reflection of the book being bad and I do not think this review should dissuade anyone either from picking it up, I personally had a hard time with it.

Thank you to Netgalley and Pushkin Press for sending me an advanced copy.

actual rating: 1.5 stars out of 5 stars