{"product_id":"good-citizens-need-not-fear-9780349012681","title":"Good Citizens Need Not Fear","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e''Bright, funny, satirical and relevant. . . . A new talent to watch!'' \u003c\/b\u003eMARGARET ATWOOD (via Twitter)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eThis brilliant and bitingly funny novel-in-stories, set in and around a single crumbling apartment building in Soviet-era Ukraine, heralds the arrival of a major new talent.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA cast of unforgettable characters--citizens of the small industrial town of Kirovka--populate Maria Reva''s ingeniously entwined tales that span the chaotic years leading up to and immediately following the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989. Weaving the strands of the narrative together is an unforgettable, chameleon-like young woman named Zaya: an orphan turned beauty-pageant crasher who survives the extraordinary circumstances of her childhood through a compelling combination of ferocity, intelligence, stubbornness and wit.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eInspired by her own family''s history, Reva''s \u003ci\u003eGood Citizens Need Not Fear \u003c\/i\u003etakes us from paranoia to tenderness and back again, exploring what it i\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBright, funny, satirical and relevant . . . A new talent to watch!\u003c\/b\u003e -- MARGARET ATWOOD * from Twitter *\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eGood Citizens Need Not Fear\u003c\/i\u003e is \u003cb\u003ethe funniest, most politically astute book I've read in years\u003c\/b\u003e. Reva's pitch perfect tone - especially at that comic junction where the absurdity of a system rigged to control human beings collides with actual humans - is \u003cb\u003ebang-on brilliant\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMaria Reva's \u003cb\u003eenthralling \u003c\/b\u003edebut of interlinked short stories achieves the double effect of timelessness and timeliness. The emotional impact of this book is cumulative. This is partly down to \u003cb\u003eher mastery of the form\u003c\/b\u003e: the stories are connected by a unity of place, time and relationship. \u003cb\u003eMore importantly, they are brought to life by Reva's handling of darkness and light\u003c\/b\u003e * Kapka Kassabova, Guardian Book of the Day *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCreative, poignant, and darkly hilarious\u003c\/b\u003e, \u003ci\u003eGood Citizens Need Not Fear \u003c\/i\u003eis full of relevant questions about resistance, corruption and maintaining dignity against the dehumanizing power of the State. This is an \u003cb\u003eoutstanding\u003c\/b\u003e first book\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLuminous\u003c\/b\u003e. These stories speak with humour yet real emotion of the heaviness of totalitarian systems and show how the light of our humanity still shines through. \u003cb\u003eTerrific\u003c\/b\u003e stuff\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWitheringly incisive and consistently pitch-perfect, \u003ci\u003eGood Citizens Need Not Fear\u003c\/i\u003e is nothing short of a comic triumph \u003c\/b\u003e * Globe and Mail *\u003cbr\u003eMaria Reva is \u003cb\u003ea miracle writer\u003c\/b\u003e: how else to explain how dark and suffused with light these stories are, how genuinely hilarious and very serious, how entertaining and thought provoking? \u003cb\u003eYou've never read anything like them, and together they make an incredible, strange and deeply exciting book\u003c\/b\u003e * Elizabeth McCracken, author of BOWLAWAY *\u003cbr\u003eReading this \u003cb\u003edazzling\u003c\/b\u003e story collection, I discovered it's possible to have your heart broken while laughing loud enough to wake the baby two doors down the hall. With their big, delightful dollops of surrealism and absurdity, these stories conjure up from the old Soviet-era Ukraine a world that feels, with its hall-of-mirrors twists and torques, uncannily--alarmingly!--on point and up-to-date. \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eGood Citizens Need Not Fear\u003c\/i\u003e marks the beginning of what is sure to be a long, strong career for the brilliant Maria Reva\u003c\/b\u003e * Ben Fountain, author of BILLY LYNN’S LONG HALFTIME WALK *\u003cbr\u003e[A] \u003cb\u003ehilarious\u003c\/b\u003e, absurdist debut collection...Reva delights in the strange situations caused by political dysfunction, while offering surprising notes of tenderness as ordinary people learn to get by. The riotous set pieces and intelligent gaze make this an auspicious debut * Publishers Weekly (starred review) *\u003cbr\u003eI have never read anything like these radiant stories. They are \u003cb\u003etrue originals- funny, devastating, and containing a weird, wild energy\u003c\/b\u003e. These citizens, living in the literally collapsing buildings of Ukraine, will not be crushed or silenced. They have something urgent to say about where we are today -- Deb Olin Unferth, author of WAIT TILL YOU SEE ME DANCE\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eEverything about this book is astonishing\u003c\/b\u003e - its breadth and depth, its wit and originality, its inventiveness and intelligence and, maybe most surprising of all, its great big heart. We've been waiting for a writer as fearless and thrilling as Maria Reva, and \u003ci\u003eGood Citizens Need Not Fear\u003c\/i\u003e confirms that she's arriving exactly when we need her most -- Bret Anthony Johnston, author of REMEMBER ME LIKE THIS\u003cbr\u003eReva's world tips slyly from Soviet-style absurdism to a more fantastical surrealism . . . \u003cb\u003eReva has a wonderful sense of humor and an equally wonderful sense of the absurd\u003c\/b\u003e . . . Reva is clearly a talent to watch: Her prose has a neat efficiency, and her stories are as \u003cb\u003ememorable\u003c\/b\u003e as they are unique. The world Reva creates slips fluidly from the surreal to the absurd to the grittily realistic * Kirkus Reviews *\u003cbr\u003e[A] \u003cb\u003ewitty \u003c\/b\u003efirst collection . . . Reva's tales effortlessly converge, offering well-honed portraits of her characters' realities, sensibilities and urgencies * Booklist *\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eGood Citizens Need Not Fear\u003c\/i\u003e showcases the best form of creative writing on the market today - the tight, powerful short story that draws one in immediately, scores its emotional points, and stuns with unforgettable, detailed word-pictures . . . There are no weaknesses in the book with its absurd situations, dark humor and human nature on full display . . . The many metaphors dazzle the mind . . . Vibrant, risky and satisfying. Reva's volume is slim, but hefty in ideas and artistry. . . \u003cb\u003eMaria Reva is a towering talent and her book debut a complex work of art\u003c\/b\u003e * The Oklahoman *\u003cbr\u003eDarkly funny . . . Reminded me of \u003ci\u003eChristadora\u003c\/i\u003e by Tim Murphy . . . Deeply satisfying . . . [Reva] is really great at finding dark humor in what otherwise would be bleak situations * BookRiot's All About the Books! Podcast *\u003cbr\u003e. . . Like a funhouse mirror. Given the setting of a Ukrainian town in the 1980s, readers might enter the collection expecting the usual westernized version of life in the late Soviet Union: corruption, Kafkaesque bureaucracy, maybe a dash of the secret police. But while these elements do make appearances in Reva's fiction, the overall tone is one of nihilistic, elated mysticism. Her stories don't have twists so much as layers, as in soil: every bit of digging uncovers something new, sometimes a treasure, sometimes a grotesquerie * Quill \u0026amp; Quire *\u003cbr\u003e[An] innovative, bitingly funny short-story collection * Entertainment Weekly *\u003cbr\u003eAbsurd, funny, devastating . . . \u003cb\u003eStrange, beautiful and so very full of life\u003c\/b\u003e * Lara Prescott *\u003cbr\u003eReva's stories are witty yet dark and foreboding, harboring bitter and biting humor that does little to veil the despair [of the good citizens] . . . The writing style and storylines are exceptional, unique to the author yet reminiscent of the classics. 'Lucky Toss' taps into Edgar Allan Poe's 'The Tell-Tale Heart' [and in 'Roach Brooch'] shades of Franz Kafka's \u003ci\u003eMetamorphosis\u003c\/i\u003e are evident . . . Entertaining yet disconcerting and complex. [Reva] showcases the harsh reality of oppression, poverty, abandonment, fear and the constant scrabble simply to subsist and be counted as having a life worthy of acknowledgment * Lone Star Literary Life *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eOne of the leading post-Soviet writers of her generation \u003c\/b\u003ewhile breaking through the limitations of the term itself * The Nation *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eStriking\u003c\/b\u003e . . . unfold[s] in the fertile space between story collection and novel . . . \u003ci\u003eGood Citizens Need Not Fear\u003c\/i\u003e uses interlinked tales centred around a crumbling apartment block in Ukraine to convey the absurdity of post-Soviet life * Guardian (Best books of the year) *\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Little, Brown Book Group","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48733639410007,"sku":"9780349012681","price":8.54,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780349012681.jpg?v=1720000974","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/good-citizens-need-not-fear-9780349012681","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}