"Drawing on the rich tradition of Odessan humor, this captivating book chronicles the experience of emigration from the Soviet Union at a time when leaving the country for good was an involved and dicey business, often verging on a grotesque and absurd."

- Tomas Venclova, Yale University 

"This masterfully written book reads in one breath. With his remarkable sense of humor, Emil Draitser explores the reasons for Jewish emigration from the Soviet Union, recreates the complex twists and turns associated with this departure, and describes the joys and sorrows in the everyday lives of his characters before they make their way to America." 

-Gavriel Shapiro, Cornell University

"Although Emil Draitser's novel is saturated with humor -- dwellers of Odessa, the 'capital of Russian humor,' cannot be portrayed otherwise -- it is a very serious book, an excellent insight into the Soviet Jewish psyche of the 1970s." 

- Gennady Estraikh, New York University

"The characters of Emil Draitser's amazing novel find themselves balancing between the two worlds. Their souls belong to Russia, but their aspirations are tied to the West. There is no better opportunity to show the dark comedy of immigration, and Emil Draitser does this with more humor, intelligence, and compassion than any other writer.

- Laura Vapnyar, novelist and New Yorker short-story writer