| Record Number |
837555 |
| ISBN |
9781419748325 (hardback) |
| Author |
Littell, Robert, 1935- author. |
| Title |
Comrade Koba : a novel / Robert Littell. |
| Publisher/Date |
New York : The Overlook Press, [2020] |
| ©2020 |
| Pagination etc. |
166 pages ; 22 cm |
| Summary Note |
Moscow. After the death of his nuclear-physicist father and the arrest of his mother during the Stalinist purge of Jewish doctors, ten-year-old Leon Rozental hides in the secret rooms of the House on the Embankment. There he encounters Koba, a high-ranking Soviet officer with disturbing insights into the thoughts and actions of Joseph 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. |
| Subject - Name |
Stalin, Joseph, -- 1878-1953 -- Fiction |
| Subject |
Dom na Naberezhnoĭ (Moscow, Russia) -- Fiction |
| Orphans -- Fiction |
| Jews -- Soviet Union -- Fiction |
| Political purges -- Fiction |
| Soviet Union -- History -- 1925-1953 -- Fiction |
| Historical fiction. |
| Biographical fiction. |
| Shelf Location |
F LITT |
