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Comrade Koba: A Novel
A Novel
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Check link for latest rating. ( 273 ratings, 62 reviews)
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Comrade Koba: A Novel
$1999
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Unavailable
Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?
This novel will appeal to readers of historical fiction interested in Soviet history, complex political figures, and evocative coming-of-age narratives. Fans of character-driven stories and those intrigued by the personal impact of totalitarian regimes will find it especially engaging.
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Description
Leon Rozental—ten and a half, intellectually precocious, and possessing a disarming candour—is suddenly alone after the death of his nuclear physicist father and the arrest of his mother during the Stalinist purge of Jewish doctors. Now on his own and hiding from the NKVD in the secret rooms of the House on the Embankment, the massive building in Moscow where many Soviet officials and apparatchiks live and work, Leon starts to explore.
One day, after following a passageway, Leon meets Koba, an old man whose apartment is protected by several guards. Koba is a high-ranking Soviet official with troubling insight into the thoughts and machinations of Comrade Stalin.
In this taut and layered novel, New York Times bestselling author Robert Littell deploys his deep knowledge of this complex period in Russian history and masterful talent for captivating storytelling to create a nuanced portrayal of the Soviet dictator, showing Stalin's human side and his simultaneous total disregard for and ignorance of the suffering he inflicted on the Russian people.
The charm and spontaneity of young Leon make him an irresistible narrator—and not unlike Holden Caulfield, whom he admits to identifying with—caught in the spider's web of the story woven by this enigmatic old man.
Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?
Booklist praises the novel as a compelling exploration of Stalinist Russia’s tragic humanity through the relationship of a naive boy and a tortured dictator. The Historical Novel Society highlights its balance of youthful innocence and world-weariness with warmth and insight. InsideHook regards it as a capstone to Littell’s career, interweaving Cold War origins, espionage, and Jewish identity in a masterful concluding work.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781419748332
Publisher: Abrams
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 28 April 2022
Country: United States
Imprint: Abrams
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Width: 140.0mm
Height: 210.0mm
Weight: 250g
Pages: 176
About the Author
Robert Littell is the author of more than a dozen other highly acclaimed novels, many about the Cold War and the Soviet Union, including his masterwork, the New York Times bestseller The Company, and the Los Angeles Times Book Award winner for Best Mystery/Thriller, Legends. An American born in Brooklyn, Littell now lives in France.
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After the sudden death of his nuclear physicist father and the arrest of his mother during the Stalinist purge of Jewish doctors, young Leon Rozental—intellectually precocious and possessing a disarming candour—is hiding from the NKVD in the secret rooms of the House on the Embankment, a large building in Moscow where many Soviet officials and apparatchiks live and work. One...HardbackSold Out -
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