![]() Julian is equally judgmental about his son, Lenny, an expatriate venture capitalist in Moscow who fancies himself “a cowboy on the frontiers of private enterprise,” while Julian bitterly finds capitalist Russia as corrupt and repressive as its Soviet predecessor. Julian, one of the disenchanted Soviet Jews allowed to emigrate in the late 1970s, has never really forgiven Florence for her stubborn loyalty to the brutal police state that murdered her husband, sent her to a labor camp, and stuck their son in state orphanages. The grim saga of Florence Fein’s education in the realities of Soviet life is punctuated by her son Julian’s sardonic first-person account of his return to Moscow in 2008 to facilitate an American-Soviet oil project, during which he also takes jaundiced looks back at his fraught relationship with his mother. ![]() ![]() ![]() An idealistic young American heads for the Soviet Union in 1934, with consequences that reverberate through three generations in Krasikov’s ambitious and compelling first novel ( One More Year: Stories, 2008). ![]()
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![]() And with every summer I spent stolen away with him in those enchanted woods, he grew to become so much more.īut when I return to Glenshire as an adult, grieving and engaged to someone else, all those legends quickly morph into nightmares. He was kind, and beautiful, and special, and hurting. But when he warned me about the mute boy who also lurked in those woods, the one the priest had declared to be the spawn of Satan himself, I refused to listen. ![]() Or the way they sparkled with mischief when he told me tales about the magical creatures that dwelled in the forest behind his humble Irish sheep farm-shy fairies who liked to eat tea biscuits, cruel witches who liked to eat children, a moody lake spirit with a taste for expensive gifts.Īs a child, I believed every fantastical word. I can't remember anymore if my grandfather's eyes were blue or green, but I'll never forget the way they wrinkled at the corners when he laughed at one of his own jokes. ![]() ![]() ![]() From the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of 44 Chapters About 4 Men (inspiration for the Netflix Original series Sex/Life) comes a dark mafia romance steeped in Irish folklore. ![]() ![]() ![]() It’s a job, just like any other, so why does it feel so different? Assigned ‘Chris-sitting’ duty while Matt’s on honeymoon, Jase has a week to discover what is hidden beneath the bright camouflage. Luckily for the gullible Matt, Jase can smell a liar a mile away, and Chris Bacon, if that’s even his name, stinks to high heaven. His plans for quiet recuperation are ruined by the effervescent, go-go dancing twink who has everyone wrapped around his little finger. Thanks to a suicide bomber, ex-military police sergeant Jase Rosewood is back in the English countryside. If his secrets are revealed, they won’t want him and he has nowhere else to go. ![]() The problem is, his new brother’s very edible friend isn’t fooled by his act. That’s the formula Chris has used all his life, but this time, he has something he’s never had to lose before, a family that cares. Amazon US Title: Optical Illusion (Paint: Book One)Īt a Glance: I enjoyed the majority of this book and became invested in Jase and Chris’ story, even if a few aspects did not work for me.īlurb: Smile, wiggle, lie, apologise, and run for the hills. ![]() |