Play Audiobook Sample
Stalina Audiobook
Play Audiobook Sample
(2.05) - 106 listener ratings
Quick Stats About this Audiobook
Total Audiobook Chapters:
Longest Chapter Length:
Shortest Chapter Length:
Average Chapter Length:
Audiobooks by this Author:
Publisher Description
After the fall of the Soviet Union, Stalina Folskaya’s homeland is little more than a bankrupt country of broken dreams. She flees St. Petersburg in search of a better life in America, leaving behind her elderly mother and the grief of the past. However, Stalina quickly realizes that her pursuit of happiness will be a hard road. A trained chemist in Russia, but disillusioned by her prospects in the US, she becomes a maid at The Liberty, a “short-stay” motel on the outskirts of Hartford. Able to envision beauty and profit even here, Stalina convinces her boss to let her transform the motel into a fantasy destination. Business skyrockets and puts the American dream within Stalina’s sights. A smart, fearless woman like Stalina can go far…if only she can reconcile the ghosts of her past. Obsessed with avenging her family while also longing for a new life, Stalina is a remarkable immigrant’s tale about a woman whose imagination—and force of personality—will let her stop at nothing.
Download and start listening now!
"A marvelous, captivating novel. Reviewing this for Russian Life, so will copy the whole review here after that is to press..."
— Paul (5 out of 5 stars)
Quotes
-
“A highly accomplished, imaginative work, an impressive debut. Emily Rubin is a writer to watch.”
— Jonathan Baumbach, author of B -
“A quirky and wonderful new voice in American fiction. Emily Rubin’s wise and funny debut is a fresh take on the immigrant story, a new angle on the joy and pain of change.”
— Sam Lipsyte, author of The Ask -
“A marvelous, captivating debut novel.”
— Russian Life Magazine -
“Mordantly funny, deliciously human, Rubin’s tale of a self-possessed survivor brings zest to the literature of immigration and adaptation.”
— Booklist -
“Rubin has created an immigrant tale as forceful, unique, and surprising as her unforgettable heroine.
— Chronogram -
A marvelous, captivating debut novel.
— Russian Life Magazine -
Rubin’s first novel about a Russian woman’s adventures in America after the fall of the Soviet Union is teasingly matter-of-fact and cat-claw smart…Mordantly funny, deliciously human, Rubin’s tale of a self-possessed survivor brings zest to the literature of immigration and adaptation.
— Booklist
Stalina Listener Reviews
-
" I just couldn't get into this one. "
— liirogue, 10/14/2013 -
" I thought this book was interesting and engaging, but I also felt that it missed a certain excitement factor. Some of the interactions with the main character and other characters fell short and could have had more depth. "
— Rita, 9/3/2013 -
" I find it good to read stuff out of my usual comfort zone. This was there and yet it was still very pleasnt to read. I enjoyed the style in which Rubin brought detail to it. "
— J.R., 3/16/2013 -
" This was a weird little novel. There were some funny parts and some serious parts, but there didn't seem to be a clear story line with a problem, climax and solution. The main character, Stalina seemed to meander about sharing information as she came to it without a rhyme or reason. "
— Marti, 2/22/2013 -
" Just OK. I did learn a little about life in Russia.. "
— Barb, 2/11/2013
About Emily Rubin
Emily Rubin’s fiction has been published in the Red Rock Review, Confrontations, and HAPPY. She is the recipient of the first annual Sarah Verdone Writers Award and a Pushcart Prize nominee. In 2005, she began producing Dirty Laundry: Loads of Prose, a reading series that takes place in Laundromats around the United States. She divides her time between New York City and Columbia County, New York with her husband, Leslie, and their dog, Sebastian.
About Laural Merlington
Laural Merlington is an audiobook narrator with over two hundred titles to her credit and a winner of multiple Earphones Awards. An Audie Award nominee, she has also directed over one hundred audiobooks. She has performed and directed for thirty years in theaters throughout the country. In addition to her extensive theater and voice-over work, she teaches college in her home state of Michigan.