2025 is going to be a big year for English-language books written by Soviet-born emigre authors. From poetry to fiction, journalism to cookbooks, here is the list of FSU books published in 2025. For more details on these books, check out my full blog post on Punctured Lines.
Simon Shuster, THE SHOWMAN | nonfiction in paperback | HarperCollins | January
The Showman gives an insider’s perspective on the war in Ukraine based on one journalist’s unprecedented access to Volodymyr Zelensky and his cabinet.
Yaroslav Trofimov, NO COUNTRY FOR LOVE | novel | Abacus | February
Romantic historical fiction about a Jewish Ukrainian woman surviving in Stalinist Ukraine.
Julia Alekseyeva, ANTIFASCISM AND THE AVANT-GARDE | nonfiction | University of California Press | February
A study of international leftist documentary art of the 1960s as a weapon of resistance to fascism.
Julia Kolchinsky, PARALLAX | poetry | University of Arkansas Press | March
A lyrical narrative of parenting a neurodiverse child under the shadow of the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Luisa Muradyan, I MAKE JOKES WHEN I’M DEVASTATED | poetry | SMU Project Poëtica/Bridwell Press | March
Make Jokes When I’m Devastated evokes love, grief, hope and longing across generations, continents, and devastation in Ukraine.
Inna Krasnoper, DIS TANZ | poetry | Veliz | March
This poetry collection problematizes the gaps between languages, but also looks for points of contact, and the means for becoming proximate.
Boris Fishman, THE UNWANTED | novel | HarperCollins | March 25
A novel about a young girl and her parents fleeing an unnamed civil war and the brutal dictatorship that has targeted their family.
Katya Apekina, MOTHER DOLL | novel in paperback | Overlook Press | March
An intricately constructed nesting doll of a novel about four generations of mothers and daughters and the inherited trauma cast by the Russian Revolution.
Alina Adams, GO ON PRETENDING | novel | History Through Fiction | May 1
Three generations of women battle against the tides of history, from segregated 1950s America to the fall of the USSR and the rise of revolutionary Rojava.
Maria Reva, ENDLING | novel | Penguin Random House | June 3
An absurdist debut novel about a biologist in Ukraine battling to save the country’s snail species from the brink of extinction.
Gary Shteyngart, VERA, OR FAITH | novel | Penguin Random House | July 8
A bitterly funny tale of a family struggling to stay together in a country rapidly coming apart, told through the eyes of their wondrous ten-year-old daughter Vera.
Mikhail Iossel, SENTENCE | fiction | University of Toronto Press | August
Sentence is a remarkable juggling act between genres and countries, memory and imagination, past and present-a celebration of linguistic freedom and virtuosity.
Polina Chesnakova, CHESNOK: COOKING FROM MY CORNER OF THE SOVIET DIASPORA | cookbook | Hardie Grant | September
A cookbook and a memoir, Chesnakova takes us on a journey through time and taste, giving a new life to recipes familiar to those of us who grew up in Soviet kitchens.
Kristina Ten, TELL ME YOURS, I’LL TELL YOU MINE | short story collection | Stillhouse Press | October
A fantastical, genre-crossing collection exploring the darker side of games and childlore in which immigrants, women, and queer people confront the horrors of living in a society hell-bent on controlling every aspect of their identities.
Sasha Vasilyuk, YOUR PRESENCE IS MANDATORY | novel in paperback | Bloomsbury | Fall 2025
Last but not least, I’m excited for the paperback edition of my historical fiction novel to come out in the Fall with a fresh new cover, inspired by the snowy French edition.
