"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

"Emil Draitser's new book enhances his reputation as a talented storyteller and satirist. The title of his novel is not just a reference to the mass Jewish emigration from Russia in the 1970s. Rather, the exodus 'from here to wherever' resonates as a metaphor reminding us how, suspended between two different worlds, all exiles must feel in the face of the unknown. Only through considering the varied perspectives of Draitser's heteroglossia can we understand what it means to leave the country of one's birth in search of the American dream."

—Tatyana Novikov, Univ. of Nebraska, Omaha 

"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 

"Emil Draitser, my fellow former Soviet subject, whose writing flows freely and strongly, is one of the keenest and most genuine among all witnesses to, and chroniclers of, the bygone world of the ill-starred Soviet Atlantis. His voice, at once poignant, full of vigor, and suffused with memory's sunny warmth, manages to capture the very essence of the unrepeatably lovely and idiosyncratic Black Sea-bound city of Odessa. This book is a pure pleasure to read."

—Mikhail Iossel, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada

"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 Jewishpsyche of the 1970s."

—Gennady Estreikh, New York University

"Well-known writer Emil Draitser pleased us with a new splendid novel. Written with the inimitable Odessan humor and Jewish sadness,  this book is about our, the third Jewish emigration from Russia, common destiny."

—Semyon Reznik, author and historian