Recommended. The title story is excellent. Marra is doing wonderful work and definitely a eriter to watch.

PHENOMENAL! Sometimes I'm on the fence about short stories and that's why it took me so long to read this but I devoured this whole thing in one sitting and that is RARE for a book of short stories for me. So yes! Read it now! Amazing characters, compelling unifying theme. SO GOOD and SO much to dissect here. Plenty of fodder for class discussions and read alouds!

I really enjoyed the stories. Loved the women and the background! Very different, I am not generally a short-story kinda gal so to rate this 4 stars is huge in my world!

Dear Reader,

This is another book that has been sitting on my shelf collecting dust from Book Expo America this year (and I'm killing myself for that). I'm always a little reluctant to pick up a short story collection because I don't usually "LOVE" them, only like (or really like). So this was quite a surprise, as you can see by my rating of five stars, I loved this one. I loved his debut book, "A Constellation of Vital Phenomena" and this one is just as fantastic and tear jerking. Speaking of tears... this one got me pretty bad. I'm not one to cry much and this is the second book in a year to have made me cry ("A Little Life" was the other one). This is also the very first time I've cried over a short story collection. Although, calling this short stories is something I wouldn't do. I'm actually surprised the publisher and/or Author decided to do this, seeing as many readers shy away from them. I would probably put this more under a collection of stories that make a novel (very David Mitchell).

Each "story" is told from various characters in the same world, each with a voice to turn a cold, bleak setting into something relatable. So much is written about 1930s Soviet Russia, the best was being able to view the world from the eyes of characters you would never imagine. One of my favorites being the Soviet censor, who has the heart of an artist but has to suppress that talent and use it in a very dark way. This story starts all the others which connect through family, friends, the passing of someone on the sidewalk. Everything joins, which is why I think it's unfair for the book to be typecast as a short story collection when it is so much more. You get to know this world, the characters, and the interconnecting stories so well that it elicits emotion, strong emotion. I don't want to go into detail because this would spoil the journey for you, rather I would just push this into your hands and make sure you gave it a shot. For those of you who haven't read Marra... pick up one of these books, he is fast becoming an Author to admire and watch. I know I will be waiting (not so patiently) for his next book. I should also give a shout out to the amazing Tournament of Books collaborators for picking this one to be included. I can't wait to shout along from the sidelines, between this one and A Little Life... ugh, it'll be hard to choose.

Happy Reading,
AmberBug

This book puts most other collections of stories--and most novels, for that matter--to shame. What a masterpiece!