Author Lev Golinkin Presents His Critically-Acclaimed Memoir
Thursday, February 26, 2015
Lev Golinkin came to the United States as a child refugee from the former Soviet Union. He is a graduate of Boston College (2004) who currently resides in New Jersey. This is his first book.
A compelling story of two intertwined journeys: a Jewish refugee family fleeing persecution and a young man seeking to reclaim a shattered past. In the twilight of the Cold War (the late 1980s), nine-year old Lev Golinkin and his family cross the Soviet border with only ten suitcases, $600, and the vague promise of help awaiting in Vienna. Years later, Lev, now an American adult, sets out to retrace his family's long trek, locate the strangers who fought for his freedom, and in the process, gain a future by understanding his past.
Lev Golinkin's memoir is the vivid, darkly comic, and poignant story of a young boy in the confusing and often chilling final decade of the Soviet Union. It's also the story of Lev Golinkin, the American man who finally confronts his buried past by returning to Austria and Eastern Europe to track down the strangers who made his escape possible . . . and say thank you. Written with biting, acerbic wit and emotional honesty in the vein of Gary Shteyngart, Jonathan Safran Foer, and David Bezmozgis, Golinkin's search for personal identity set against the relentless currents of history is more than a memoir—it's a portrait of a lost era. This is a thrilling tale of escape and survival, a deeply personal look at the life of a Jewish child caught in the last gasp of the Soviet Union, and a provocative investigation into the power of hatred and the search for belonging. Lev Golinkin achieves an amazing feat—and it marks the debut of a fiercely intelligent, defiant, and unforgett! able new voice.
Praise for Lev Golinkin's Book
"[A] hilarious and heartbreaking story of a Jewish family’s escape from oppression....whose drama, hope and heartache Mr. Golinkin captures brilliantly." --The New York Times
"An awesome intercontinental whirlwind, funny and smart. Go Ukraine!" --Gary Shteyngart, bestselling author of Little Failure "Mr. Golinkin excels at these moments, describing the emotional truth of immigration... His account is so raw that it manages to capture at a visceral level the feelings of many of the million Soviet Jews who left their homeland at the Cold War’s end." --The Wall Street Journal
"[Lev Golinkin] convincingly relates the purgatory of statelessness, the confused anticipatory state of the immigrant." --The Chicago Tribune "Best memoir title of the year...Golinkin's A Backpack, a Bear, and Eight Crates of Vodka is fueled not by sly humor but by a potent cocktail of earnestness and anger." --The Oregonian
"Outstanding, original, and deeply moving." --Chuck Hogan, bestselling author of The Town and co-author of The Strain
"As the author turned nine during the Soviet Union’s final years, his Jewish family fled hostile Kharkov, in Ukraine, with virtually no possessions and made their way through central Europe to the U.S. After college, he retracted their steps, thanking the NGO workers and patrons who’d helped them – including the son of an unrepentant Nazi Austrian baron. Golinkin’s account of the whole saga is lucidly intelligent and humanistic – and deeply moving." --ELLE (The Elle's Lettres 2015 Readers' Prize)
This event is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.
Lev Golinkin's presentation at Seton Hall is co-sponsored by the Russian and East
European Studies Program and the Slavic Club.
