book-annakFEATURED BOOK FOR DECEMBER:

In November we wrote about a nonfiction work that directed our feet in St. Petersburg.

This month we’re highlighting a novel that treads on some of the same territory we reference in our book—the hunt for one’s place when displaced.  The setting is the US and not Europe or the Caribbean. What Happened to Anna K by Irina Reyn follows a young Russian woman in New York City whose life parallels another Anna K—Anna Karenina.

I read this after Leslie and I completed our manuscript. I found that not only did the novel parallel Anna Karenina, but we wrote some passages about the lives of our Vera and Alisa that were remarkably similar to Reyn’s Anna.  Perhaps, to paraphrase Tolstoy, all Russian mafia are the same.  The author permits the reader both an insider and outsider view of a Soviet emigrant and captivates the imagination through Anna’s dreams.

For more information about this talented writer, visit her website:  http://www.irinareyn.com/