Bronshtein in the Bronx
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
A wry, thought-provoking fictional portrayal of ten pivotal weeks in the life of Leon Trotsky, inspired by the Russian revolutionary's exile in New York City in 1917, by the New York Times bestselling author of The Company
January 12, 1917: An ocean liner docks in New York Harbor. Among the disembarking emigrants is one Lev Davidovich Bronshtein—better known by his nom de guerre, Leon Trotsky. Bronshtein has been on the run for a decade, driven from his beloved Russia after escaping political exile in Siberia. He lives for—and is ready to sacrifice his life for—a workers’ revolution, at any cost. But is he ready to become an American?
In the weeks leading up to the February Revolution that will eventually see Lenin’s Bolsheviks seize power, Bronshtein haunts the streets, newspaper offices, and socialist watering holes of New York City, wrestling with the difficult questions of his personal revolutionary ideology, his place in his own family, his relationship to Lenin, and, above all, his conscience.
Master of the espionage novel Robert Littell brings to life the world-famous revolutionist’s sojourn in the Bronx in this extraordinary meditation on purpose, passion, and the price of progress.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Espionage novelist Littell (The Company) tries his hand at historical fiction in this charming reimagining of the 10 weeks Leon Trotsky spent in the Bronx. From the moment the exiled Trotsky, his companion Natalya, and their two young sons step off a tramp steamer on Ellis Island in January 1917, J. Edgar Hoover's Bureau of Investigation is on his tail. He and Natalya set up house in the Bronx, where, in between writing for a Russian-language socialist newspaper, he gives speeches opposing U.S. entry into WWI, prompting Hoover and his men to arrest him for sedition and incitement to riot. After enduring a harsh interrogation by Hoover, he's bailed out by American socialist politician Algernon Lee. In February, news of the Russian Revolution prompts Trotsky to return with his family to Russia, bringing the novel to its hopeful conclusion—one that's coolly ironic given the real Trotsky's tragic fate. An air of irreverence pervades this account, which is full of winking anachronisms that poke fun at Trotsky and his fellow idealists ("It ain't Jules Verne rocket science," asserts a socialist about the invention of the light bulb, which allows factories to further exploit workers). Littell's fans will love this playful swerve.
