The Patriots draws on similar themes, despite its epic scope. Krasikov’s award-winning story collection, One More Year, was about compromised choices amid the social and economic flux of political change. Her story is punctuated by the first-person voice of her adult son, Julian, in Russia on business 40 years later and eager to quell rumours that his mother informed on friends and co-workers to stay alive.

After moving to Russia in 1934, Florence throws herself wholeheartedly into the creation of the USSR, remaining loyal to her new homeland even after her American passport is confiscated. Sana Krasikov digs into the topic from a new and surprising angle in a thoroughly researched and deeply felt historical novel, The Patriots, which follows the consequences of an idealistic young American’s flight to the Soviet Union.įor Florence Fein, the opportunities and promise of the Soviet Union beat out anything that slow-moving Brooklyn has to offer. As he traces a thread from Depression-era America, through the collective housing and work camps of Stalin's USSR, to the glittering, oil-rich world of New Russia, Julian finally begins to understand the role he has played - as a father, and as a son.Įpic in sweep and intimate in detail, The Patriots is both a compelling portrait of the entangled relationship between America and Russia, and a beautifully crafted story of three generations of one family caught between the forces of history and the consequences of past choices.The subject of American innocence up against European experience has been examined in American fiction since Henry James imagined Daisy Miller sneaking into the Roman Colosseum. He must also persuade his own son, Lenny, to abandon his risky quest for prosperity in the cut-throat Russian marketplace. Now, as her son Julian travels back to Moscow - entrusted to stitch together a murky transcontinental oil deal - he must dig into Florence's past to discover who his mother really was and what she became. When a new job and a love affair lead her to Moscow, she doesn't think twice about abandoning America - only to discover, years later, that America has abandoned her. Growing up in 1930s Brooklyn, Florence Fein will do anything to escape the confining values of her family and her city, and create a life of meaning and consequence. Lose yourself in the irresistable story of one woman's journey through 20th-century Russia. 'A sweeping, colourful read' Mail on Sunday

The patriots a novel by sana krasikov