ESCAPE FROM KOLYMA

In Litvin’s (Sailor’s Psychology, 2012, etc.) alternate-history tale, a family endures oppression in a Soviet Union–like country around the time of World War II.

Aaron Kaufman lives in Aborigin, a land that’s largely succumbed to a psychological virus called “ultimate sociopathic and stingy recidivism” (aka “USSR”), which alters people’s brain chemistry. Consequently, a group called “the collective” can easily manipulate these citizens into abiding by its doctrine of communal living. Their philosophy is akin to communism—a sickle and hammer symbolize the collective—and it emphasizes “wealth redistribution.” But it turns out that the collective’s true intent is for all of its citizens to remain poor—unlike Aaron’s wealthy father, Isaac. Both Aaron and Isaac are known as “Sailors,” which means that they’re immune to the virus, but it doesn’t prevent the collective from throwing them separately into prison camps. Meanwhile, Nazis have made their way into Malantia, a region in Aborigin, where they’re committing atrocities against Jewish inhabitants. Various members of the extended Kaufman family wind up dead, brainwashed, or searching for ways to flee the country. The enigmatic Superior Leader is the tyrannical dictator who enforces communalism—and even after he’s dead, it appears that the corrupted doctrine may be there to stay. Litvin’s novel is a solid fusion of real-life and fictional history. For example, the author couples his imagined virus with references to the real-life Russian civil war of 1917-1922 and the “Great Patriotic War,” the Soviet term for the eastern front of World War II. Litvin writes in a descriptive style with an academic tone, which often focuses on detailing unfolding events instead of developing characters—and, as such, there’s no quoted dialogue. Despite this, the plot remains comprehensible, and the many characters’ relationships remain clear. It’s also occasionally witty, as when the narration refers to certain collective leaders as “basically baboons.” Still, there’s also a good deal of repetition; for instance, in one scene, a woman gets revenge on her unfaithful husband by lying to the secret police—an incident recounted two more times in the next three pages.

An often enthralling story of a fictional but familiar ideology.