A Broken Russia Inside Me by A. Molotkov
Winner of the Trail to Table Book Award in Nonfiction and forthcoming in 2026
"Struggling under political repression and economic stagnation … concerned with making meaningful art (Molotkov) escaped to New York City … it quickly became clear how the precariousness of life in a capitalist society could threaten to shatter even the strongest bonds of love. With rich prose that … rises to the level of poetry … such well-observed details lend specificity, emotional heft, and beauty to … this immigrant’s tale. A clear, sad reflection on the pain of distance."
--Kirkus Reviews
In compulsively readable sections, A Broken Russian Inside Me traces a remarkable journey from communist Russia to a post-Soviet world to immigrant life in the United States. Molotkov's efficient prose and precise details draw us into a layered narrative, intersecting family, politics, history, and art through an intimate lens. Reading this poignant and illuminating memoir, you will be moved and you will learn. The kind of personal narrative we need more of in the world.
--Dariel Suarez, author of The Playwright's House
An uncommonly and quite remarkably poignant, tender, yet also harshly and unflinchingly raw at times, and-above all-keenly authentic and sharply observed portrait of Russia circa its heady, chaotic transition from the heavy dreamless slumber of the Brezhnevian "era of stagnation" -and indeed, the entire seventy-plus years of the catastrophic "Sloviet" stage of its turbulent history. An entirely sui generis, fascinating, and exceptionally readable memoir by a supremely talented writer. A. Molotkov is the real deal.
--Mikhail Iossel, Professor of English/Creative Writing Concordia University, Montreal
A writer of formidable intuition and empathy, A. Molotkov has given us an important book-part personal memoir, part work of historical assessment, part rumination on the nature of immigration and exile from a place that was never fully his. A generation is blessed when it gets what West Africans call a griot-a chronicler of the past, a keeper of memory. A. Molotkov is destined to become a definitive voice of the so-called "last Soviet generation." Each life journey is unique, yet so many of us will recognize ourselves as characters in his odyssey. In some ways, A. Molotkov's many rites of passage are shared histories-from a late-Soviet twilight zone to the bright colors, overwhelming sounds and dizzying opportunities of post-Cold War United States, from a suffocating gray world of predetermined choices to a strange new land, where one's freedom and need to make a choice can be both exhilarating and crushing. Not everyone makes it. An immigrant's story can be a tale of hope and atonement, but all too often it is also a heart-wrenching account of loves lost, friendships betrayed, families splintered. Things inevitably get lost in transition: we leave behind precious heirlooms and articles of memory, we reinvent ourselves, we adapt, we forget, we try to remember. This beautifully crafted and thoroughly captivating book is such an act of remembrance.
--Maxim Matusevich, Professor of Global History at Seton Hall University, Director of the Russian and East European Studies Program
--Kirkus Reviews
In compulsively readable sections, A Broken Russian Inside Me traces a remarkable journey from communist Russia to a post-Soviet world to immigrant life in the United States. Molotkov's efficient prose and precise details draw us into a layered narrative, intersecting family, politics, history, and art through an intimate lens. Reading this poignant and illuminating memoir, you will be moved and you will learn. The kind of personal narrative we need more of in the world.
--Dariel Suarez, author of The Playwright's House
An uncommonly and quite remarkably poignant, tender, yet also harshly and unflinchingly raw at times, and-above all-keenly authentic and sharply observed portrait of Russia circa its heady, chaotic transition from the heavy dreamless slumber of the Brezhnevian "era of stagnation" -and indeed, the entire seventy-plus years of the catastrophic "Sloviet" stage of its turbulent history. An entirely sui generis, fascinating, and exceptionally readable memoir by a supremely talented writer. A. Molotkov is the real deal.
--Mikhail Iossel, Professor of English/Creative Writing Concordia University, Montreal
A writer of formidable intuition and empathy, A. Molotkov has given us an important book-part personal memoir, part work of historical assessment, part rumination on the nature of immigration and exile from a place that was never fully his. A generation is blessed when it gets what West Africans call a griot-a chronicler of the past, a keeper of memory. A. Molotkov is destined to become a definitive voice of the so-called "last Soviet generation." Each life journey is unique, yet so many of us will recognize ourselves as characters in his odyssey. In some ways, A. Molotkov's many rites of passage are shared histories-from a late-Soviet twilight zone to the bright colors, overwhelming sounds and dizzying opportunities of post-Cold War United States, from a suffocating gray world of predetermined choices to a strange new land, where one's freedom and need to make a choice can be both exhilarating and crushing. Not everyone makes it. An immigrant's story can be a tale of hope and atonement, but all too often it is also a heart-wrenching account of loves lost, friendships betrayed, families splintered. Things inevitably get lost in transition: we leave behind precious heirlooms and articles of memory, we reinvent ourselves, we adapt, we forget, we try to remember. This beautifully crafted and thoroughly captivating book is such an act of remembrance.
--Maxim Matusevich, Professor of Global History at Seton Hall University, Director of the Russian and East European Studies Program
