Young Heroes of the Soviet Union

An act of literary archaeology… [in] finely wrought prose… melding the genres of biography, history and memoir. The book is more than just an account of one family’s ordeals: it is an engrossing account of dictatorship, war and genocide, and how the toxic legacy they left behind has etched itself into successive generations of Soviet citizens. – Daniel Beer * The Guardian *A loving and mournful account that’s also skeptical, surprising and often very funny… Lush and moving. – Jennifer Szalai * New York Times *Illuminating, dramatic… It’s as if [Halbertstadt’s] feelings about Russia were frozen in time when he emigrated, leaving shards of perception that are peculiarly incisive… Majestic writing. – Matthew Janney * Spectator *Alex Halberstadt is a magnificent writer. Young Heroes of the Soviet Union is a beautiful book about trauma and its impact on one extraordinary family, and an incisive, radiant look at the long legacy of suffering and war.This terrific, gripping book, part family memoir, part history…[is] a superb evocation of the Soviet Union in the 1960s and ‘70s. – David Herman * Jewish Chronicle *

Enthralling… Alex Halberstadt describes the disjunction between his Soviet childhood and his American adolescence with incandescent wit, a sometimes bitter but always compelling nostalgia, and great literary flair. This book is a triumph.

Alex Halberstadt is the author of the award-winning Lonely Avenue: The Unlikely Life and Times of Doc Pomus. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, GQ, and The Paris Review. He is a two-time James Beard Award nominee and a recipient of fellowships from the MacDowell Colony and Yaddo. He works and lives in New York.