"Fleeing America and his gambling debts, Jim Vilatzer uses the Russian language skills he learned from his émigré grandparents to land a job in Moscow interviewing Gulag survivors, work that brings him into the rich lives of his new neighbors and catches the suspicious attentions of Russia's Interior Ministry and the CIA"
"Fleeing America and his gambling debts, Jim Vilatzer uses the Russian language skills he learned from his émigré grandparents to land a job in Moscow interviewing Gulag survivors, work that brings him into the rich lives of his new neighbors and catches the suspicious attentions of Russia's Interior Ministry and the CIA."
"A gripping novel about the dangers and draws of contemporary Russia'from the author of The Geographer's Library With The Geographer's Library, Jon Fasman made an 'inventive and spirited' debut (The New Yorker) that landed him on The New York Times bestseller list. Every bit as dazzling, The Unpossessed City takes readers into the Wild East that is Russia today. There we meet Jim Vilatzer'an American expat whose Russian language skills land him a job interviewing former inmates of the Gulag and ensnare him in a web of deceit involving the CIA, Russia's Interior Ministry, and Central Asian arms dealers selling the most dangerous technologies to the highest bidder. From its brooding portrayal of Moscow to its riveting pace, The Unpossessed City is an atmospheric triumph in the tradition of Donna Leon's novels of Venice."@en