Sana Krasikov Libri

Every so often a new writer appears who is wiser than her years would suggest, whose flesh-and-blood characters embody more experience than a young writer could possibly know. Sana Krasikov is one of those writers. Her first published story appeared in the New Yorker, her second in The Atlantic Monthly’s fiction issue. One More Year is her debut collection, made up of stories of people who hold out hope, despite the odds, that life will be kind to them.The characters who populate Krasikov’s stories are mostly women–some are new to America; some still live in the former Soviet Union, in Georgia or Russia; and some have returned to Russia to find a country they barely recognize and people they no longer understand. Mothers leave children behind; children abandon their parents. Almost all of them look to love to repair their lives, and when love isn’t really there, they attempt to make do with relationships that substitute for love.Like Jhumpa Lahiri and ZZ Packer, two writers whose fully-realized characters drive their fiction, Sana Krasikov is an exhilarating talent whose first collection puts her on the map with today's most talented young authors.

Idealism, betrayal, and family secrets intertwine in this impressive novel that spans two countries and three eras, from the 1930s to the present. During the Great Depression, young American Florence Fein leaves Brooklyn in search of a warm position in Moscow, which seems to promise love and independence. Upon her arrival in the Soviet Union, she quickly finds herself ensnared by the system. Years later, her son Julian emigrates to the United States, but his work in the oil industry requires frequent visits to Moscow. When KGB files about his mother are declassified, Julian decides to delve into his family history and urges his son Lenny, who is trying to do business in Putin's Russia, to return home. The discoveries in the archives are terrifying and painful, revealing the unknown story of Americans abandoned by their homeland and hidden truths about American-Russian collaboration. The novel combines elements of romance and spy thriller, offering a poignant tale of complex family relationships against a political backdrop. It features epic scope, vivid descriptions of life in the former USSR and contemporary Russia, and a probing inquiry into ideological choices.