The dissident

Title:

The dissident

Author:

Goldberg, Paul, 1959- author.

Summary:

On his wedding day in 1976, Viktor Moroz stumbles upon a murder scene: two gay men, one of them a U.S. official, have been axed to death in Moscow. Viktor, a Jewish refusenik, is stuck in the Soviet Union because the government has denied his application to leave for Israel; he sits “in refusal” alongside his wife and their group of intellectuals, Jewish and not. But the KGB spots Viktor leaving the murder scene. Plucked off the street, he’s given a choice: find the murderer or become the suspect of convenience. His deadline is nine days later, when Henry Kissinger will be arriving in Moscow. Unsolved ax murders, it seems, aren’t good for politics. A whip-smart, often hilarious Cold War thriller, Paul Goldberg’s The Dissident explores what it means to survive in the face of impossible choices and monumental consequences. To help solve the case, Viktor ropes in his community, which includes his banned-text-distributing wife, a hard-drinking sculptor, a Russian priest of Jewish heritage, and a visiting American intent on reliving World War II heroics. As Viktor struggles to determine whom to trust, he’s forced to question not only the KGB’s murky motives but also those of his fellow refuseniks―and the man he admires above all: Kissinger himself. -- Amazon.

Edition:

First edition.

Physical Description:

xii, 411 pages : map ; 22 cm

Genre:

Thrillers (Fiction)

Historical fiction.

Detective and mystery fiction.

Subject Term:

Refuseniks -- Fiction.

Jews -- Soviet Union -- Fiction.

Cold War -- Fiction.

Murder -- Investigation -- Fiction.

Geographic Term:

Moscow (Russia) -- History -- 20th century -- Fiction.

Publisher:

Farrar, Straus and Giroux,

Publication Date:

2023

ISBN:

9781250208590

Publication Information:

New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2023.

Call Number:

GOLDBERG

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Item Barcode	Collection	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
33607003662320	Adult Fiction	GOLDBERG Paul	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

Bound With These Titles

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Summary

"A feast for serious fiction readers." --Wendy Smith, The Washington Post

"A dead-serious, dead-funny, no-he-didn't marvel." -- Joshua Cohen, author of The Netanyahus

A thrilling, witty, and slyly original Cold War mystery about a ragtag group of Jewish refuseniks in Moscow.

On his wedding day in 1976, Viktor Moroz stumbles upon a murder scene: two gay men, one of them a U.S. official, have been axed to death in Moscow. Viktor, a Jewish refusenik, is stuck in the Soviet Union because the government has denied his application to leave for Israel; he sits "in refusal" alongside his wife and their group of intellectuals, Jewish and not. But the KGB spots Viktor leaving the murder scene. Plucked off the street, he's given a choice: find the murderer or become the suspect of convenience. His deadline is nine days later, when Henry Kissinger will be arriving in Moscow. Unsolved ax murders, it seems, aren't good for politics.

A whip-smart, often hilarious Cold War thriller, Paul Goldberg's The Dissident explores what it means to survive in the face of impossible choices and monumental consequences. To help solve the case, Viktor ropes in his community, which includes his banned-text-distributing wife, a hard-drinking sculptor, a Russian priest of Jewish heritage, and a visiting American intent on reliving World War II heroics. As Viktor struggles to determine whom to trust, he's forced to question not only the KGB's murky motives but also those of his fellow refuseniks--and the man he admires above all: Kissinger himself.

Immersive, unpredictable, and always ax-sharp, The Dissident is Cold War intrigue at its most inventive. It is an uncompromising look at sacrifice, community, and the scars of history and identity, from an expert storyteller.

Author Notes

Paul Goldberg is the author of the novels The Yid , which was a finalist for the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature and the National Jewish Book Award's Goldberg Prize for Debut Fiction, and The Château. As a reporter, Goldberg has written two books about the Soviet human rights movement, and coauthored (with Otis Brawley) How We Do Harm , an expose of the US health-care system. His writing has appeared in The Washington Post , Slate , The New York Times , and elsewhere. He is also the editor and publisher of The Cancer Letter , a newsletter focused on the business and politics of cancer. He lives in Washington, DC.

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

This enjoyably absurd if sometimes unwieldy Cold War farce from Goldberg (The Chateau) is set in the mid-'70s Soviet Union and begins with Viktor Moroz, a Jewish "refusenik" and the titular dissident, discovering a gruesome double murder on his wedding day. The KGB knows that Viktor, who is desperate to leave the U.S.S.R. and emigrate to Israel with his new wife, Oksana, was at the scene of the murders, and gives him nine days to solve the crimes, lest he become a suspect himself. But this is no ordinary whodunit: Goldberg goes for something much more kaleidoscopic, introducing an enormous cast of characters (including several real-life figures, Henry Kissinger among them) and peppering the narrative with lengthy asides on literature, history, and geopolitics. The result often trades narrative thrust for painstaking portraiture of Soviet Jewish life, but Goldberg is an impressively encyclopedic guide. Readers looking for an ambitious, off the beaten path comedic mystery will find plenty to enjoy. Agent: Josh Getzler, HG Literary. (June)

Library Journal Review

Nonfiction and fiction author Goldberg (The Yid was a finalist for the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature) eschews run-of-the-mill Cold War spy novel tropes in this darkly comic tale. Viktor Morov, a Jewish refusenik stuck in Moscow, is fruitlessly waiting for the Soviet government to approve his application to emigrate to Israel. On the evening of his wedding in January 1976, he stumbles upon the horrific scene of two gay men axed to death in their bed. Fleeing does Viktor little good; he's soon confronted by his secret KGB "curator," who tells him he has two options: take the blame for the murders or find the killer before a diplomatic visit by U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger eight days away. There begins the journey that wraps up Viktor, his new bride Oksana, and a clutch of their Jewish intelligentsia friends in a time-ticking quest to find the killer. Goldberg follows his retinue of vivid characters as they drink vodka to excess, soliloquize on the joys of Bulgakov, and consider the state of the Soviet society to which the Jewish refuseniks say "no." VERDICT A refreshing and literary take on the genre that appeals to the intellect as well as the pulse.--Peggy Kurkowski