There’s a lot going on in this original and inventive novel, although the basic plot is fairly straightforward. Jakob Bach is a quiet school teacher living amongst the Volga German community on one side of the Volga. One day he is hired by Udo Grimm, a landowner on the other side, to teach his sheltered seventeen-year-old daughter. Reluctantly Jakob agrees, and his life is forever changed by this request. Klara and he fall in love and want to make a life together but societal pressure from the rest of Jakob’s community force them to leave and they embark on an isolated and independent life in the forest. But the outside world inevitably makes its way in and try as he might to protect his daughter, with whom he is left after Klara’s death, Jakob cannot fight circumstances beyond his control. It’s the story of one man set against a sweeping historical background. First of all we have the life of the Volga Germans, who were invited by Catherine the Great to settle in the region, where they flourished for many years. But then came the War, the Revolution, the Civil war, collectivisation, increasing state control and finally their deportation by edict of Stalin in 1941. Then we see how the Soviet state co-opted its young people to become perfect Soviet citizens and how there can be no place for a lone man like Jakob. It’s a multi-layered narrative, with some magical elements, disturbing at times, tender at others, a sort of fairy tale set against vividly described real events. I found it a compelling and absorbing novel, bleak but immersive, never predictable, and at its heart a moving tale of the individual battered by a cruel world.

Historical Novels Review, November 2023:

A Volga Tale tells a tale of two worlds on opposite sides of the Volga River. On the left bank is the endless steppe and Gnadenthal, a small village within the Republic of Volga Germans (immigrants by invitation of Catherine the Great). Here we meet Jacob Bach, the village schoolteacher – a small, unprepossessing man with an unremarkable life. On the right bank are the forests and mountains, and Udo Grimm’s bustling homestead.

Bach is summoned by Grimm to educate his daughter Klara. He has never crossed the Volga and is charmed by this fairytale-like community. Surely Klara must be an enchantingly beautiful young woman, but she is kept hidden behind a linen screen, and he is forbidden to lay eyes on her. This makes for some amusing scenes. Grimm and his household return to Germany, but Klara runs to Bach in Gnadenthal, where he fearfully gazes upon her lovely face. The couple sets up a household in Grimm’s deserted farm, living an isolated life. Eventually we find Bach alone with the responsibility of baby Antje, and his steadfast care as she grows shows his gentle, caring side. Bach’s fierce fatherly love combined with the eccentric, timid man makes a unique, dimensional character.

As the Volga River runs through the center of Russia, it is also central to this novel. Bach occasionally ventures across the river to Gnadenthal to witness momentous events over 20 years, 1918-1938. Through his eyes we see the devastation of the Russian Revolution, the social and economic changes of Lenin’s regime, Stalin’s tyranny, and devastating famines of both regimes. From an English-only reader, 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

I became immersed very quickly in this captivating and moving historical novel with the Volga river flowing through its core. The characters had depth and an edge of the magical, the setting was beautifully depicted and the narrative flowed. The only disappointment was that I felt that the ending lacked satisfaction as far as the young characters were concerned. I had invested in them and wanted to feel their reactions on Bach not turning up again. However a very good read and one that awakened me to a history I knew little of. Thank you Net Galley and the publishers.

Jacob Bach is a schoolteacher who lives in a village of German colonists on Russia’s Volga River. It is a peaceful time before the Revolution where his only excitement is dashing out to play chicken with lightning storms. This changes when he reluctantly agrees to tutor a young woman named Klara who lives in isolation across the river. Her father wants her educated so he can arrange for her marriage. When this fate is imminent, she flees to Bach’s home. He has fallen in love with her and will shelter her at the price of condemnation from his religious neighbors. Eventually, they will have to move to her now deserted home on the opposite shore.

This sprawling novel follows Bach’s growth as he evolves into a man he could have never imagined. It dips in and out of fantasy, takes side trips to expose the powers who control the country’s fate in their scheming, but mostly it follows Bach, those he loves and the work he loves. There are tender moments and terrifying ones, times of abundance and devastation. It is a long read but also distinctive in creativity, characterization, and writing.

I love the depth of the characters that are built through atmosphere and a sense of longing. Yakhina's books are always filled with longing for what could have been without the influence of the impossible history of her country. This one is particularly reminiscent of children's fairy tales with the names of the characters even sounding as though they come from The Brothers Grimm.
Reading her books is like looking at a painting in the Tretyakov Gallery.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I am totally obsessed with this book. Set in the Volga region of Russia during the tumultuous period of revolution and war (~1915-1938), we follow German schoolteacher Jacob Bach. Told in five distinct parts, each with a different emphasis on language and relationships, Bach’s isolated existence on his farmstead is a prism to interpret broader events in the Soviet Union and the specific fate of the Volga Germans.

What I liked about this book is that despite it being quite long and with not a whole lot of plot it moved along quickly and I was very interested in Bach and co’s fate. The structure of this book was great and allowed for distinct “seasons” of Bach’s life to have their own story while keeping the overall chronology. Gorgeous writing, with a lot of really outstanding nature sections in particular.

The central issue in this book is language. Characters who do and don’t speak, fairy tales as folk socialism, wordless communication, language learning and education, the evolution of language in a new regime. The specific treatment of this theme was novel and subtle, and again, each section got to address it in its own way.

I also want to talk about the magical realism. It’s pretty subtle in this book, but the function of it is in service to the historical context (narrative-making and [lack of] control over one’s fate). There is a moment where one aspect of the magic suddenly shifts, and in context of the Stalin chapters we understand it’s a way to make manifest the changing narratives of rightness by the communist elite in response to their own maneuvering. So cool.

I really liked this one.

In the mid-18th century, Catherine the Great invited German settlers to come to Russia from her native country. And come they did, building neat villages along the Volga River and speaking a mishmash of German dialects and never really connecting with their Russian neighbors. Guzel Yakhina uses the family of one teacher and his family to show us how this once-thriving community was destroyed by revolution, war, and Stalin's wild paranoia.

Yakhina's characters use folk tales and magic realism to cope and and try to understand what is happening to them. Some Volga Germans returned to Germany--a completely foreign country since they left before the country was unified--and others immigrated to the U.S. Teacher Jacob Bach will be witness to everything that destroys his world.

The Volga Germans pop up in history as. one of those ethnic groups Stalin forcibly removed to Siberia and central Asia. "A Volga Tale" gives voice to these people and their experience, their destruction and survival.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for granting access to this title in exchange for an honest review.

I finished A Volga Tale by Guzel Yakhina more than a month ago, and I was able to recollect my thoughts long enough to write them down only now. It was such an evocative and quiet story, but it packed such a punch!

The story is set in the Volga German Soviet Republic along the shores of the Volga river and spans the late XIX and early XX century. It follows the story of Jakob Bach, a teacher in a small village, who falls in love. After a tragic event (check your Trigger Warnings, everybody!), he finds himself growing his daughter, amidst the historical turmoil that encompassed tzarist Russia first and of the Soviet Union afterwards. This is as much as I can tell without giving away major spoilers.

But here’s the thing that really raised this book above other historical fiction (with a slight hint of what felt like magical realism to me, but I couldn’t find any review mentioning it so take it with a pinch of salt): there is historical turmoil, you as an adult reading the book know that there is historical turmoil, but this guy lives in the middle of nowhere and so the effects of “big history” events reach him weeks, months after they happen.

I LOVED it.

It really helped me understand what is the effect of big history on common people and their everyday lives. It also really really helped me learn so much more about the history of Russia and of the Soviet Union. From really small things (for example, did you know that teachers were paid in wood for their stoves? And that sometimes they were paid in dried donkey dung because that worked for the stove as well?) to big events that had long lasting consequences and that frankly I should have already known, starting from the fact that I didn’t even know there was a Volga German Soviet Republic.

The writing was lovely, albeit a bit hard to get into at the beginning, the characters few (three, four tops) but so well rounded, and the story really unexpected.

I warmly recommend this to anyone who wants to experience a different historical type of historical fiction. Also – this book will make you feel cold, so brew some warm tea, chocolate, or soup (if that’s what you are into) before you start reading.

Absolutely brilliant this will be included on my booktube channel in several videos this month. A wrap up, a reading vlog and a video on Europa new releases. Thank you for the copy, this was a 5* read.

Like every Europa, this book was beautifully written with such a strong story and characters. Also, timely and topical as it addresses Russian history and mysticism, with the added bonus of fairy tales and just a touch of magical realism.

I really feel like I will be digesting this novel for a while. We follow our main character, Jacob Ivanovich Bach, as a young schoolmaster near the Volga River. He begins this journey teaching a young woman named Klara. Her fathers hired Bach to teach her to speak German better. It’s seems like such a simple request, but it’s much more than that. We follow Bach through the rest of his life after this.

I really liked this novel. It took a magical turn once Bach starts writing fairy tales. Russia has a lot of mysticism in its culture, but this seemed more like magical realism. His fairy tales started coming true, and here is where the story started to lose me a little. I know there was a lot of symbolism in these stories, but they went over my head. We also get little glimpses into Stalin’s head, which was kinda strange. I struggled to see how they connected, outside of just the river.

The basic story was good. I just don’t see many people understanding this to it’s fullest. I know a little bit about Russia and it’s history, but much of this was beyond me. It’s my own fault though. The writing was beautiful and very vivid. There is a scene at the end, where Bach enters the Volga River, and it was so beautiful and I felt like I was there.

I would love to read more from this author in the future. I rarely read current fiction (I tend to live in classics), but the writing was phenomenal. There is a reason this has won so many awards. I think it’s worth checking out.

Thank you to NetGalley and Europa for the advanced copy. This is my honest review.