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“This is
not only a wise, funny novel; it feels like the beginning of a thrilling
career. Yelena Akhtiorskaya’s sentences plunge the reader headlong in to the
energy, anxiety, frailty, and love of the Nasmertov family of Brooklyn and
Odessa. She finds poetry in clamor and disorder, and she sees her characters
from every angle, with a rare mix of clarity and compassion.”
— Chad Harbach, New York Times bestselling author
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“The kind of fiction that is richer than real life…charged
with consistently imaginative language and great verve…Akhtiorskaya’s prose
keeps the pace moving as quickly as any suspenseful plot could. On every page,
she writes about people and things with close attention…This sparkling debut,
though it stays close to home, suggests she can roam wherever she’d like.”
— New York Times
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“Akhtiorskaya’s
genius is her ability to throw off observations that sound—if they weren’t so
witty—like lines from a folktale. Her first novel, Panic in a Suitcase, is equal parts borscht stew and Borscht Belt—an
immigration comedy that can’t tell whether it’s leaving or coming to America.”
— Washington Post
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“Nearly Nabokovian.”
— New York magazine
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“Capturing the irritations and intricacies of family
life with Nabokovian humor and wit…[Akhtiorskaya] gets at capital-T Truth
without a hint of sentimentality, achieving the intangible literary goal of
showing our oft-banal world in a familiar yet astonishing light.”
— Elle
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“A virtuosic debut…A wry look at immigrant life in
the global age and the gulfs between countries and generations that language,
with its heady solace, can only sometimes bridge.”
— Vogue
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“A delight. Peopled with smartly drawn,
humorously caricatured characters and packed with clever, evocative
description, Panic in a Suitcase is a
charming, chaotic read.”
— Huffington Post
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“Panic in a
Suitcase isn’t just remarkable as a literary debut but also as a uniquely
American work of fiction. It’s a testament to how diverse and unexpected the
Brooklyn literary scene can be, but more than that, it’s a testament to
Akhtiorskaya’s wit, generosity, and immense talent as a young American author.”
— NPR Books
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“Sharply observed and very funny…a multitude of
exuberant set pieces about modern émigré life, animated by Akhtiorskaya’s
insider knowledge and her offbeat way with words.”
— NPR’s Fresh Air
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“Yelena Akhtiorskaya is one of New York’s best young
writers—funny and inventive and stylistically daring, yes, but also clear-eyed
and honest.”
— The Millions
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“Panic joins
a vast canon of immigrant tales, but its prose truly sets it apart, each
sentence bursting with such striking imagery, syntactic complexity, and
poeticism that it would do its own protagonist proud.”
— Nylon
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“In this marvelous debut novel, a Russian immigrant family from Odessa
arrives in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, to begin a new life, but leaving
the old world to pursue the American dream isn’t quite what family
members had imagined…A touching and darkly funny first novel that is sure to be adored by readers everywhere.”
— Library Journal (starred review)
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“Given current events, Akhtiorskaya’s debut—concerning an immigrant
family’s ambivalent ties to America and those who choose to stay behind
in Ukraine—could not be more timely…Akhtiorskaya’s sideways humor allows rays of genuine emotion to filter through the social and domestic satire.”
— Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
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“The Ukrainian Jewish family featured in this hilarious debut leaves Odessa for Brooklyn in 1991…Akhtiorskaya’s take on how family members manipulate and fail each other is spot-on…Akhtiorskaya excels at humorous, slightly overstated character sketches, making each person uniquely absurd.”
— Publishers Weekly
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“Stefan Rudnicki takes listeners into the midst of the
wonderful, funny, crazy characters in this debut novel…Rudnicki colors their
stories with all the dark humor, varied emotion, and bittersweet tones of a
melancholy violin…Rudnicki offers perfect pronunciations of Yiddish
expressions, and his superb performance removes all distance between listener
and characters.”
— AudioFile
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“Told from the intimate perspective of an insider,
this exhilarating, hilarious first novel captures the bustling commotion
of the immigrant experience.”
— Booklist
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“I think Yelena Akhtiorskaya is a genius. What
she manages to do, linguistically and emotionally, in the span of a single
sentence is astonishing.”
— Keith Gessen, author of All the Sad Young Literary Men
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“Yelena Akhtiorskaya creates a beautifully
precise and vibrant world populated by touching, funny, unforgettable
characters. A true joy to read.”
— Lara Vapnyar, author of Memoirs of a Muse