num_pages: 147
description: Last year The New Yorker, Harper's, and Zoetrope introduced America to the Bermans — Bella and Roman and their son, Mark — Russian Jews who have fled the Riga of Brezhnev for Toronto, the city of their dreams.Already one of the season's most talked-about debuts, Natasha is the chronicle of the Bermans, told in stories full of heart, verve, and consequence. In "Tapka", six-year-old Mark's first experiments in English bring ruin and near tragedy to the neighbors upstairs. In "Roman Berman, Massage Therapist", Roman and Bella stake all their hopes for Roman's business on their first dinner with a North American family. In the title story, a stark, funny anatomy of first love, we witness Mark's sexual awakening at the hands of his fourteen-year-old cousin, a new immigrant from the New Russia. In "Minyan", Mark and his grandfather watch as the death of an Odessan cabdriver sets off a religious controversy among the residents of a Jewish old-people's home.The stories in Natasha capture the immigrant experience with wit and deep sympathy. Their evocation of boyhood and youth, and the battle for selfhood in a passionately loving Jewish family, recalls the early work of Bernard Malamud, Leonard Michaels, and Philip Roth.Contents:- Tapka- Roman Berman, Massage Therapist- The Second Strongest Man- An Animal To The Memory- Natasha- Choynski- Minyan
language: English
title: Natasha and Other Stories
titlecomplete: Natasha and Other Stories
genres: Contemporary, Canadian Literature, Jewish, Literary Fiction, Short Stories, Russia, Canada, Fiction, Literature, Collections
ratings_count: 1859
awards: awardedAt: 1072944000000
name: Guardian First Book Award, awardedAt: 1104566400000
name: Commonwealth Writers' Prize
category: Best First Book in Caribbean and Canada, awardedAt: 1072944000000
name: Danuta Gleed Literary Award, awardedAt: 1104566400000
name: Jewish Quarterly-Wingate Prize
category: Fiction
publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux