Summary and Reviews of The Nesting Dolls by Alina Adams

The Nesting Dolls by Alina Adams

The Nesting Dolls

by Alina Adams
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  • Critics' Consensus (4):
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  • First Published:
  • Jul 14, 2020, 384 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Jul 2021, 400 pages
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About This Book

Book Summary

Spanning nearly a century, from 1930s Siberia to contemporary Brighton Beach, a page-turning, epic family saga centering on three generations of women in one Russian Jewish family - each striving to break free of fate and history, each yearning for love and personal fulfillment - and how the consequences of their choices ripple through time.

Odessa, 1931. Marrying the handsome, wealthy Edward Gordon, Daria―born Dvora Kaganovitch―has fulfilled her mother's dreams. But a woman's plans are no match for the crushing power of Stalin's repressive Soviet state. To survive, Daria is forced to rely on the kindness of a man who takes pride in his own coarseness.

Odessa, 1970. Brilliant young Natasha Crystal is determined to study mathematics. But the Soviets do not allow Jewish students―even those as brilliant as Natasha―to attend an institute as prestigious as Odessa University. With her hopes for the future dashed, Natasha must find a new purpose―one that leads her into the path of a dangerous young man.

Brighton Beach, 2019. Zoe Venakovsky, known to her family as Zoya, has worked hard to leave the suffocating streets and small minds of Brighton Beach behind her―only to find that what she's tried to outrun might just hold her true happiness.

Moving from a Siberian gulag to the underground world of Soviet refuseniks to oceanside Brooklyn, The Nesting Dolls is a heartbreaking yet ultimately redemptive story of circumstance, choice, and consequence―and three dynamic unforgettable women, all who will face hardships that force them to compromise their dreams as they fight to fulfill their destinies.

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Reviews

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The stories of Daria, Natasha and Zoe fit into one another like the nesting dolls of the book's title. However, it's not until the women of the family finally begin to share their stories with one another that they realize the importance of the past, and that sometimes getting what you need is better than getting what you want. Adams has created a beautiful story containing rich descriptions, impossible decisions and a family filled with both exasperation and love...continued

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(Reviewed by Jordan Lynch).

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Beyond the Book



Discriminatory "Coffin Problems" in the USSR

Moscow State University In The Nesting Dolls, Natasha dreams of entering the mathematics program at Odessa University. However, after correctly solving all of the initial equations on her entrance exam, she is presented with an additional equation, one that seems impossible to answer. When she cannot answer it, Natasha is failed and refused admission. Heartbroken, she learns that she was given a "Jewish problem," also known as a "coffin problem" or "killer problem," a type of equation specifically designed to keep Jewish students from enrolling at the university. Although The Nesting Dolls is fiction, Natasha's experience was a form of anti-Semitic discrimination faced by many Soviet Jewish students in the 1970s and '80s.

Coffin problems were used to ...

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