From Here to Wherever:

A Novel of Odessa (Na kudykinu goru)

From Here to Wherever:
A Novel of Odessa
Na kudykinu goru


by Emil Draitser
©2012
256 pages

ISBN-10: 098291136X
ISBN-13: 978-0982911365

From Here to Wherever: A Novel of Odessa (Na kudykinu goru) is a novel in Russian about the hopes and pains of emigration. It is set in the late 1970s, at the time of mass emigration from the Soviet Union. A diverse set of characters--luckless simple folks, expelled dissidents, victims of ethnic discrimination, and black-marketers escaping state prosecution - bid farewell to their beloved city and head for the West via Vienna and Rome. Their attempts at en-route adjustment to the free world are often painful and amusing at the same time. The structure of the novel is highly inventive. Chapters are alternately written by the author and one of his protagonists. The stories of the characters, hilarious and wrenching, are skillfully woven into this dual narrative.

Review in Notes on Contemporary Literature

Praise for From Here to Wherever