Panic in a Suitcase

Reviews

“Sharply observed and very funny…a multitude of exuberant set pieces about modern émigré life, animated by Akhtiorskaya’s insider knowledge and her offbeat way with words.”

“Yelena Akhtiorskaya is one of New York’s best young writers—funny and inventive and stylistically daring, yes, but also clear-eyed and honest.”

“Panic joins a vast canon of immigrant tales, but its prose truly sets it apart, each sentence bursting with such striking imagery, syntactic complexity, and poeticism that it would do its own protagonist proud.”

“In this marvelous debut novel, a Russian immigrant family from Odessa arrives in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, to begin a new life, but leaving the old world to pursue the American dream isn’t quite what family members had imagined…A touching and darkly funny first novel that is sure to be adored by readers everywhere.”

“Given current events, Akhtiorskaya’s debut—concerning an immigrant family’s ambivalent ties to America and those who choose to stay behind in Ukraine—could not be more timely…Akhtiorskaya’s sideways humor allows rays of genuine emotion to filter through the social and domestic satire.”

“The Ukrainian Jewish family featured in this hilarious debut leaves Odessa for Brooklyn in 1991…Akhtiorskaya’s take on how family members manipulate and fail each other is spot-on…Akhtiorskaya excels at humorous, slightly overstated character sketches, making each person uniquely absurd.”

“Stefan Rudnicki takes listeners into the midst of the wonderful, funny, crazy characters in this debut novel…Rudnicki colors their stories with all the dark humor, varied emotion, and bittersweet tones of a melancholy violin…Rudnicki offers perfect pronunciations of Yiddish expressions, and his superb performance removes all distance between listener and characters.”

“Told from the intimate perspective of an insider, this exhilarating, hilarious first novel captures the bustling commotion of the immigrant experience.”

“I think Yelena Akhtiorskaya is a genius. What she manages to do, linguistically and emotionally, in the span of a single sentence is astonishing.”

“Yelena Akhtiorskaya creates a beautifully precise and vibrant world populated by touching, funny, unforgettable characters. A true joy to read.”

“This is not only a wise, funny novel; it feels like the beginning of a thrilling career. Yelena Akhtiorskaya’s sentences plunge the reader headlong in to the energy, anxiety, frailty, and love of the Nasmertov family of Brooklyn and Odessa. She finds poetry in clamor and disorder, and she sees her characters from every angle, with a rare mix of clarity and compassion.”

“Sentence after sentence, Panic in a Suitcase is infused with humor and poetry, as Akhtiorskaya’s characters emerge beautiful and hilarious and splendorous in all their failings. Her language and intelligence achieve what only great literature can do: transform what you know and love into something strange and new, making the world realign itself according to the writer’s sensibility. I’d read a take-out menu written by Yelena Akhtiorskaya, but Panic in a Suitcase is a humbling, astonishing debut. Get to it as soon as you can.”

“The kind of fiction that is richer than real life…charged with consistently imaginative language and great verve…Akhtiorskaya’s prose keeps the pace moving as quickly as any suspenseful plot could. On every page, she writes about people and things with close attention…This sparkling debut, though it stays close to home, suggests she can roam wherever she’d like.”

“Akhtiorskaya’s genius is her ability to throw off observations that sound—if they weren’t so witty—like lines from a folktale. Her first novel, Panic in a Suitcase, is equal parts borscht stew and Borscht Belt—an immigration comedy that can’t tell whether it’s leaving or coming to America.”

“Nearly Nabokovian.”

“Capturing the irritations and intricacies of family life with Nabokovian humor and wit…[Akhtiorskaya] gets at capital-T Truth without a hint of sentimentality, achieving the intangible literary goal of showing our oft-banal world in a familiar yet astonishing light.”

“A virtuosic debut…A wry look at immigrant life in the global age and the gulfs between countries and generations that language, with its heady solace, can only sometimes bridge.”

“A delight. Peopled with smartly drawn, humorously caricatured characters and packed with clever, evocative description, Panic in a Suitcase is a charming, chaotic read.”

“Panic in a Suitcase isn’t just remarkable as a literary debut but also as a uniquely American work of fiction. It’s a testament to how diverse and unexpected the Brooklyn literary scene can be, but more than that, it’s a testament to Akhtiorskaya’s wit, generosity, and immense talent as a young American author.”

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