Comrade Koba: A Novel

by Robert Littell, Rachel Jacobs (Read by), Andrew Eiden (Read by)

Overview

A tight, captivating story of a naïve child’s encounters with a Soviet dictator, the twentieth novel by Robert Littell

After the sudden death of his nuclear physicist father and the arrest of his mother during the Stalinist purge of Jewish doctors, young Leon Rozental—intellectually precocious and possessing a disarming candor—is hiding from the NKVD in the secret rooms of the House on the Embankment, a large building in Moscow where many Soviet officials and apparatchiks live and work. One day after following a passageway, Leon meets Koba, an old man whose apartment is protected by several guards. Koba is a high-ranking Soviet officer with troubling insight into the thoughts and machinations of Comrade Stalin.

Through encounters between a naive boy and a paranoid tyrant, Robert Littell creates in Comrade Koba a nuanced portrayal of the Soviet dictator, showing his human side and his simultaneous total disregard for and ignorance of the suffering he inflicted on the Russian people. The charm and spontaneity of young Leon make him an irresistible character—and not unlike Holden Caulfield, whom he admits to identifying with—caught in the spider’s web of the story woven by this enigmatic old man.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781665011044
Publisher:	Blackstone Publishing
Publication date:	02/09/2021
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 5.70(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Robert Littell is the author of nineteen other highly acclaimed novels, many about the Cold War and the Soviet Union, including his masterwork, New York Times bestseller The Company, and the Los Angeles Times Book Award winner for best mystery-thriller Legends. An American born in Brooklyn, Robert Littell now lives in France.

Andrew Eiden is an actor and winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award for narration. He has been acting since the age of four, working at regional theaters, in national commercials, and on numerous television shows.

Hometown:

Martel, France

Date of Birth:

January 8, 1935

Place of Birth:

Brooklyn, New York

Education:

B.A., Alfred University, 1956

Editorial Reviews

"Comrade Koba balances youthful innocence against infirmity and world-weariness with warmth, humor, and insight."

Historical Novel Society

In this short but compelling novel, Littell uses the interplay between a disarmingly discerning if naive boy and a tortured, self-justifying dictator to expose a tragic slice of muddled humanity behind the gray monolith of Stalinist Russia.

Booklist

"...a capstone to Littell’s career, his decades-long quest to understand the origins of the Cold War, the nature of spying, and his own reckoning with Jewish identity and assimilation."

InsideHook

In this short but compelling novel, Littell uses the interplay between a disarmingly discerning if naive boy and a tortured, self-justifying dictator to expose a tragic slice of muddled humanity behind the gray monolith of Stalinist Russia.”—Booklist

"Comrade Koba balances youthful innocence against infirmity and world-weariness with warmth, humor, and insight."—Historical Novel Society

"...a capstone to Littell’s career, his decades-long quest to understand the origins of the Cold War, the nature of spying, and his own reckoning with Jewish identity and assimilation."—InsideHook

From the Publisher

A Russian boy has intensely personal discussions with an old man about the country’s controversial leader, Josef Stalin—but is the man not what he seems? Narrator Andrew Eiden presents this fascinating, if slow moving, audiobook with particular attention to the dialogue that shows the trust and understanding of the boy. Narrator Rachel Jacobs shows a wide range of skills while conjuring the voices of Russian women. The boy, Leon Rosental, discovers a tunnel that leads to a mysterious room in a building where Russian leaders secretly meet. There he encounters a mysterious, troubled old man who enjoys bantering with the child about politics. The listener will figure out the twist long before the characters, which is part of the fun. M.S. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

AUGUST 2021 - AudioFile