Book cover of Love Like Water, Love Like Fire

Book description

Comedy and tragedy collide in stories of family life in Soviet Russia and the complexities of the immigrant experience

"We can't stop turning the pages of this book." -Ilya Kaminsky, New York Times Book Review

From the moment of its founding, the USSR was reviled and admired, demonized and idealized.…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Love Like Water, Love Like Fire as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

With irresistible sly humor, a sharp eye for character, and a belief that stories can save us, Mikhail Iossel led me on a merry chase.

In his collection of 20 short stories, he paints a bitingly funny, deeply disturbing picture of a tough Soviet childhood and what it means to grow up Jewish in Leningrad. I recognized that the challenges of those early Soviet years prepared him for the immigrant experience of coming to America.

These stories are true to the Russian nature that wildly vacillates between comedy and tragedy. I loved this collection, which held me in thrall until…

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December on 5C4 by Adam Strassberg,

Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!

On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…

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