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Invented Lives

Andrea Goldsmith

Why we're reading this: USSR, Australia
[close] USSR, Australia

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Feb 19, 2023 Andrea rated it it was amazing

Shelves: around-the-world-2023, australian-author, 2023, rehoming, personal-challenge-2023

I love it so much when I discover a new (to me) author, and then find out there's a decent back catalogue to catch up on! I can't recall how I heard about this book - maybe on a podcast - and then when I spotted a copy in a charity shop, thankfully it rang a bell and I had the good sense to pick it up and buy it, because reading this book was a joy for me from start to finish.

Galina Kogan is a mid-20s Soviet Jew living in Leningrad at the start of the Gorbachev era. On the day this story begins, I love it so much when I discover a new (to me) author, and then find out there's a decent back catalogue to catch up on! I can't recall how I heard about this book - maybe on a podcast - and then when I spotted a copy in a charity shop, thankfully it rang a bell and I had the good sense to pick it up and buy it, because reading this book was a joy for me from start to finish.

Galina Kogan is a mid-20s Soviet Jew living in Leningrad at the start of the Gorbachev era. On the day this story begins, she has a chance encounter with Andrew, a young Australian artist/academic who is in the city for a few months to observe the restoration of the Church on the Spilled Blood (honestly, do yourself a favour and Google it). She accepts his card, they go their separate ways, and she thinks nothing more of it, because she has a lot going on in her life at that time. Although it's not playing out the way she had always expected, she's about to take advantage of the loosening of restrictions and leave the USSR and its anti-Semitism. Forever. Because once that train is in motion, there's no stopping it, and no going back. Ever. The way it generally works is that the application to emigrate is understood to be a one-way trip from the USSR to Israel, but once the person is over the border, they can essentially go anywhere with the help of Jewish agencies abroad.

Soon the time comes for Galina to leave. She'd always expected to end up in the USA, but with her circumstances having changed dramatically, there was nothing to be gained from following that plan, and nothing to lose by choosing somewhere else. Almost on a whim, she chooses Australia; Melbourne, where Andrew lives. A year passes. Galina isn't exactly settled but she has certainly established herself in her new Australian life when she decides to make contact with Andrew. Soon she is introduced to his parents and enveloped in his small family, and this is where the story really takes off.

Each of these major characters has secrets - things they've done (or not), things they've desired, or things they are. Galina is welcomed and loved, but her arrival into the Morrow family orbit changes everyone, as they try to either conceal their secrets or resolve to live more authentic lives.

Every time I picked up this book I felt a little thrill to be able to go back to the mid-late 80s and find out what was happening. Goldsmith paints such a vivid picture of life at that time, throwing in little cultural and historic references to stamp her authority on both the locations and the era. I found it totally immersive, and even learned a few new things about my own city. I'd read about the exile of Soviet Jews before, but Galina's experience gave me more insight to both the process and the aftermath, if I can put it that way.

This book was such an unexpected joy, I'll recommend it to everyone! ...more

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Apr 26, 2019 Gabrielle Kelly marked it as to-read

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