A01=Robert Littell
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antisemitism
Author_Robert Littell
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Category1=Fiction
Category=FH
Category=FV
childrens book
cold war
COP=United States
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
dictator
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eq_fiction
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_thrillers
genocide
government oppression
history
kgb
Language_English
life in hiding
middle grade
moscow
nkvd
on the run
oppression
orphan
PA=Not available (reason unspecified)
political prisoner
Price_€10 to €20
PS=Active
russia
softlaunch
soviet russia
stalin
teen historical fiction
tween
tyrant
ya book
Product details
- ISBN 9781419748325
- Weight: 320g
- Dimensions: 147 x 216mm
- Publication Date: 10 Nov 2020
- Publisher: Abrams
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
- Language: English
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A tight, captivating story of a naive child’s encounters with a Soviet dictator, the 20th novel by Robert Littell
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 candor—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 day after following a passageway, Leon meets Koba, an old man whose apartment is protected by several guards. Koba is a high-ranking Soviet officer with troubling insight into the thoughts and machinations of Comrade Stalin.
Through encounters between a naive boy and a paranoid tyrant, Robert Littell creates in Comrade Koba a nuanced portrayal of the Soviet dictator, showing his 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 character—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.
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 candor—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 day after following a passageway, Leon meets Koba, an old man whose apartment is protected by several guards. Koba is a high-ranking Soviet officer with troubling insight into the thoughts and machinations of Comrade Stalin.
Through encounters between a naive boy and a paranoid tyrant, Robert Littell creates in Comrade Koba a nuanced portrayal of the Soviet dictator, showing his 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 character—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.
Robert Littell is the author of 19 highly acclaimed novels, many about the Cold War and the Soviet Union, including his masterwork, the New York Times bestseller The Company. An American born in Brooklyn, he now lives in France.
