I was interested in this one because of its focus on an obscure and almost unbelievable episode, the disastrous history of the ill-fated Jewish Autonomous Region of Birobidzhan.

The author has done her research, as demonstrated by the helpful postscript in which her references are cited. Though it still remains a bit vague how much personal connection she has with the history involved, there is no doubt an involvement of some kind, and she does not conceal her background in the Russian-Jewish immigrant community of California. There is an extensive period of history covered, from the 1930s up to the perestroika era, and all of this is competent, with many sidelights, no doubt from family memories, that illuminate the twisting pathways of double-talk, surveillance and persecution involved in navigating survival in the Soviet Union.

There were several warning signs, for me. The first was the cover blurb announcing that the writer is a "New York Times bestselling author". For me, sufficient in itself to persuade me to stay away. More alarming still was the "also by" list of her previous works, which includes such titles as "The Fictitious Marquis", "When a Man Loves a Woman", and "On Thin Ice: A Figure Skating Mystery". My hope was that this one, due to the subject matter and presumably the personal connection, was one the author would treat with the gravity it merited. I am not, might I add, a reader of romances, which is a considerable understatement. I avoid them like the plague. In principle, though, I am willing to admit that a romantic novel might be serious and well-written; which I was hoping might be the case here. It was not.

Well, maybe it is not so much a want of seriousness as of skill Much of the writing is, sadly, tepid, bland, awkward, stale and astonishingly tin-eared. Then again, I have so successfully avoided the bestseller lists that possibly I have not been prepared for just how bad bestseller-oriented writing can be. In a climactic emotional scene involving the major love interests, we get the following (p. 461): "He scootched his chair closer to Regina’s, peeled her hands away from her face". Altogether, the final pages are, to my taste, insufferably soppy and treacly. There is what I would generously interepret as, perhaps, an inside joke, or a tip of the novelist's hat to the market for her works, where we are told that "Lena [the leading character] was an avid reader of what Vadik deemed 'nonsense literature.' Sidney Sheldong [sic], Judith Krantz, Jacqueline Susann" (p 437). Indeed.

Oh my gosh, every threadbare cliché from trashy romances. "He allowed Regina to peel off his shirt and finally run her hands over every centimeter of glowing skin". (p. 249) Which happens not long after said glowing-skinned hero is described "raising Regina’s chin with his hand, forcing her to look at him in a way she hadn’t since that day when he’d smeared her face with balm, triggering previously unknown sensations in Regina" (p. 245).

The characters are big on learning, and being taught, immense Life Lessons. Our heroine, within a space of three pages (p. 287-289) is described as catapulting, barreling, zig-zaggging, and plopping into one of her numerous Major Decisions, a "mammoth of a decision", the outcome of which, we discover not much farther on, has been "driving her anxiety through the roof" (p. 298)

Or (a recurring whinge): " You don’t love me. If you loved me, you would do what I asked" (p. 382)

Well, it is easy to skewer this kind of thing. Unfortunately, the writing detracts from a work that does deal with an intense and dramatic period of history, during which a clash of ideologies and world views was being played out in major crises and brutal wars that involved untold numbers of deaths and tragedies. Timely, as well, for sure. Not long ago I read a news report in which Russian officials were, behind the scenes, referring to Putin's desperate mass of new, untrained conscripts as "ground meat". The echoes are here, in the bloody Russan campaign against the Nazis: "Unofficially, they called it 'the Rzhev meat grinder,' as a conveyor of bodies was fed into the maw of a forest swamp between Rzhev and Bely". (p. 264)

I was moved to follow some of the references to Birobidzhan, of which I confess to having been largely ignorant beforehand. Wikipedia was enlightening and led me to:

https://blogs.loc.gov/maps/2020/09/go-east-young-jew-go-east/

The author's references are also an excellent starting point. Who knew that the Jewish Autonomous Region is still there on the maps and still has a Yiddish column in its newspapers ? That you can find, to this day, in Google Maps, running through one of its town, on the Sino-Russian border, a main street with the name "Ulitsa Sholom-Aleykhema" ? Who knew that the Canadian-born (a Manitoba native) Arctic explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson was involved with the promotion of Jewish emigration to Birobidzhan ? In all, a fascinating if flawed work. ( )

A very interesting book about a Jewish woman, Regina, who moves from Moscow to the Jewish Autonomous Region and her adventures and trauma throughout the war. I had never heard of the JAR before, so this book definitely piqued my interest based on the description. Regina is a strong willed character and often difficult to like. The first half of the book was incredibly slow, but the second half made up for it. The storyline in the 1980s was also quite interesting and kept my interest with it's characters and complicated situations they had to navigate. Overall an enjoyable read that has me wanting to learn more about the JAR ( )

I wish I could have read this whole book. I think it would have been a great story. I had several issues with getting this book. It was an ebook and I had trouble receiving. Once I finally got the book to download and started reading the next thing it had expired. It was taking me longer to read, as I discovered that I do not really enjoy reading by ebook method. I guess I better stick to an actual book. ( )

Many thanks to Library Thing for my free ebook.

There are so many different perspectives on Jewish World War II history, it's almost impossible to know them all. And that's why I keep reading. I had never heard of the Russian Autonomous Region created by Stalin in 1934 as a Jewish safe haven, Birobidzhan. The story is meticulously revealed by Regina Solomonova to her daughter Lena after Lena's father has passed. Regina was very young when she left Moscow for Birobidzhan and such a strong person. Lena had never known much about her mother and didn't feel as close to her as to her father. This will change as Lena and the reader learn more and more.

The author has written a story of determination and amazing resilience before and during the German invasion, with all that it entailed. This is one I would recommend for its uniqueness and originality. ( )

I have read a lot of WWII fiction over the years and it always amazes me to read and learn something about this war that I had never heard of or read about it. In 1928, the Russian government set up the Jewish Autonomous Region in east Siberia. The area was officially established and began populating with Jewish people from all over Russia. In the 1940s there were almost 50,000 people living in this largely agricultural area. Despite the fact that this was set up by the government, the people were treated badly and not given enough tools to properly farm the area. In the rest of Russia at the time this area was settled, Stalin was establishing his communist regime and life was difficult for most people. Anyone who disagreed with the Stalin regime was jailed or killed.

Regina is 18 years old and lives in Moscow with her parents. She's been spending time with a group opposed to the Stalin regime and when her neighbor is taken in for questioning, she knows that she'll be arrested soon. She packs a few items and leaves Moscow to travel to the Jewish region. There she hopes to find someone that she had met in Moscow and establish herself in the area. When she arrives, she find out that the person she was looking for had been arrested and someone else was in charge of the government. She goes to work on a collective farm and works to get her ideas used to help the farm be more profitable. During this time. the war with Germany is getting closer. The man she loves is sent to the Russian front to fight the Germans and she decides to follow him with their infant child. This story is told by Regina to her daughter Lena who found a trove of letters in her father's office after his death that he sent over the years to try to locate someone from the Jewish area of Russia. She knew nothing about her parents' past and was shocked when her mother finally shared the story. Once she has heard the story, she has to make several decisions that could affect her life and her marriage.
The timeline in this well researched novel is centered around the present day, Regina's time in Russia and the time she spends in a concentration camp. It was an interesting and unsettling account of the harsh life that Jewish people in Russia faced during these time periods. It's a book about family and love, courage and resiliency with a strong female character who never gives up. ( )