The Tsar of Love and Children

"Marvellous writing. Marvellous translation. Marvellous edition. With Borgesian composure, a precision that touches on the finest moments of Vladimir Nabokov, and humour drawn from the other side of despair, the author recounts horrors as if he were describing gardens, and therein lies the power of his literary contribution."

Well done, Anthony Marra! His long-awaited second novel, *The Tsar of Love and Children*, confirms that he is a great literary talent.

‘...For Marra, the great and fundamental truths lie in the details. The big things are pushed aside – war, labour camps, murders – and the details emerge from the background as characters who piece together their fragmented lives...”

‘...A bold book which, in fact, I perceive more as a modular novel. Or like a musical performance in two parts. The narratives intertwine and gradually a fresco of characters takes shape against the backdrop of the changes in Russia over the past century...”

‘...Mara’s skill lies in his ability to balance drama with comedy and paradox with harsh logic. Opposite every form of dehumanisation lies a profound element of humanity...’

"...And as the narrative baton is passed from one character to another, towards the end of the relay the voices of the characters seem to converge, and the issues that torment each of them individually seem to become an amalgam that has tormented and still torments humanity. As Mara himself writes somewhere: ‘If God has a voice, it is our own’...”

"...With this book, Marra has achieved something rare: he has overcome the ‘second book’ trap. Usually, such a successful debut is followed by a mediocre to good book; perhaps even a bad one. But with his second book, Marra is a serious contender to become one of the classics of the 21st century."

"...When I read ‘The Constellation of Vital Phenomena’, I wondered how it was possible for such a young person to write such a remarkable first book. So when Marra’s second book, ‘The Tsar of Love and the Child’, was published, on the one hand I was eager to read it, but on the other I feared I would be disappointed. The author had set the bar very high. Now I can say with certainty not only that this second book is better than the first, but also that Marra will be one of those authors who will continue to captivate us in the future."

"...Marra’s second book is better than his first, and consists of a series of interlinked short stories recounting the tales of several tragic characters from various corners of the Soviet Union, from Chechnya to Siberia. [...] It is one of the most enjoyable books I have read recently."

"...Marra tells moving stories, which nevertheless make you smile, appreciate an ironic image and, at the same time, feel sorry for these lives wasted and ground down by history. His style, in terms of his approach to the human condition, draws on the great Russian tradition, without losing its modern and self-deprecating character."

– Yannis Baskozos, Ependysi newspaper

"...As is often the case, literature can give us a deeper and more accurate picture of a society and its workings than many historical or scientific works. [...] People are at the heart of this outstanding novel. It is worth reading alongside _The Constellation of Vital Phenomena_, the author’s previous book."

– Kostas Stoforos, The Path of the Left

"...A remarkable collection of short stories, imbued with a deep and lived-in sensitivity, possessing the gravitas, seriousness and allure of a masterpiece novel."

– Pavlos Papadopoulos, To Vima

"...It is presented as a collection of short stories, but it is a multifaceted novel, a prose-based timelapse that follows the journeys of seemingly unconnected people across the vast Soviet Union over the course of a century that seems endless. Marra, however, weaves threads—sometimes dense, sometimes thinner—that unite the stories and connect the characters..."

"...Marra, then, manages to say what for years had gone unsaid. But let us not rush to interpret this book—shoe box and cassette together—in a single-minded way. For the story remains suggestive, enigmatic, kaleidoscopic. Yet the people and events did exist; they are true."

"...this book moved me... it moved me deeply... So many characters, so many stories... Yes, I admit I liked it..."

"...Mara depicts people and situations with descriptive acuity, emotional precision and dark humour. A political book, among other things, in which, as has rightly been said, political reality is transformed into everyday experience."

"[...] in this, clearly more daring, literary endeavour of his, Mara does not allow us for a single moment to grow bored or even remain indifferent, nor does he let us sink into depression, since even those facing death have the courage—or the audacity—to mock their own mortality."

"...People and events, images and sounds in a well-written narrative that allows the reader to enjoy the writing and the flow of the stories."

"The Tsar of Love and Children, a new gem of American and world literature."

"...With these two books, Anthony Marra seems to have firmly established himself among the pantheon of great writers."

"...You won’t want to put it down once you start reading; it won’t let you go until you’ve finished it."

"...Marra, with ease and mastery, with subtlety and a magical touch, moves from the particular to the universal, and his stories resonate with one another in the most natural and effortless way."

"...Anthony Mara is one of those who know how to piece together the fragments of the chaos in their minds and deliver flawless stories to us. Specifically, flawless narratives that are never confined to a single character, never devolve into simplistic presentations of complex issues, and never have their ending dictated by the fictional hero. The story and the way it ‘demands’ to be told determine the ending."

"The author of *Constellation of Vital Phenomena* returns to Chechnya to record stories on the edge, from the distant Soviet Union to the present day, proving that he is a writer who is here to stay. ‘The Tsar of Love and Children’ is the new, gripping collection of short stories that ultimately coalesce into a novel and read like a captivating, outrageous soundtrack."

"And in this book, Marra focuses on the brutality of an era to highlight the redemptive power of humanity. He describes this himself in a single sentence from the book, which also sums up its essence, when he says: ‘It takes the full force of state power to erase a face, but only the mistake of a single person—if that is what they call memory now—to save it’."

"...Marra has once again succeeded in describing, in a spare style, the horrors of war and the torments of regimes, the beauty of true and innocent love, the pain of loss, and the helplessness of man in the face of the grandeur of life itself..."

"..._The Tsar of Love and Children_ is a book that is easy to read, but harder to forget. A book worthy of establishing Anthony Marra in our readers’ consciousness as an author we will follow for a long time to come."

"...The novel is well-written, flows smoothly, and is a thoroughly engaging read, immediately immersing us in the atmosphere of a transitional era and highlighting the tragic nature of such a turning point. Anyone who wants to understand post-Soviet society and the upheavals in Russia must read Marra."

"...Within Mara’s narratively skilful puzzle, with the aid of a multitude of techniques, ranging from first-person narration to the omniscient narrator and the ‘historiographical’ austere style of the implied author, and through a robust language rendered flawlessly by Achilleas Kyriakidis’s meticulously ‘economical’ translation, the fictional characters emerge as imaginary constructs in the negative of a moral portrait of humanity...”

"...the American author Anthony Marra returns with an original collection of nine stories, each of which weaves so masterfully into the next and ‘tie’ together so seamlessly that it is difficult to say whether we are ultimately reading short stories or, in essence, a new hybrid novel, bearing the hallmark of great talent..."

"...Through exceptional writing, magical storytelling and heart-wrenching humour, this book speaks of love, of how absurd war is but – above all – of life itself, but above all, it speaks of memory, memory and the need to capture it in words, which seems to be the driving force behind all the protagonists, the only possession that remains for each and every one of them.”

"...I was captivated by the caustic, dark humour (what the Russians call ‘chernukha’), the echoes of science fiction (particularly the scene in the artificial forest with the metal leaves) and, above all, the reminder that you can write heart-wrenching prose without being self-absorbed..."

"...Almost on a par with ‘Constellation...’, without surpassing it, ‘The Tsar...’ is a collection of stories – a striking fresco that wins you over with its humanity, compassion, its ingenious interplay of the fake and the authentic, the fluidity of collective memory, the power that simply changes colours and faces, the black humour, and the literary magic it exudes. Marra, having successfully navigated the pitfalls of his second book, confirms his talent and promises great things for the future."