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megatza 's review for:
Atomic Anna
by Rachel Barenbaum
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
April 26, 1986, Chernobyl suffers a catastrophic breakdown. In the moment of the explosion though, Soviet scientist Anna Berkova hurtles forward through time to December 8, 1992, where she meets her daughter Manya, who, covered in blood from a gunshot wound, begs her to try again to save Raisa, Anna’s granddaughter. Thus the plot spins forward, in multiple timelines with Anna as an old woman in late 1980s and early 1990s Soviet Union, Manya, who chooses to go by Molly, in 1960s and 70s Philadelphia and Atlantic City, flashes of Anna’s life with her best friend Yulia, who adopts Molly, in 1930s and 1940s in Germany and USSR, and of Raisa in 1970s and 80s in Atlantic City and Philadelphia. Anna uses clues from her family’s history and a the time machine she has built to work her way through history to try to save Chernobyl from destruction and to save her family.
@Pinkcowlandreads recommended this to me, and she knocked it out of the park with this recommendation. This is the “Meggiest” book I think I’ve read this year: time travel, nuclear physics, comic book heroines, a plot threatening humanity, achingly complex characters and the relationships that drive them, historical fiction, and beautiful writing. It’s interlaced with Jewish faith, an addict’s journey through recovery, and generations of family ties from 1917 Russia through 1992 Philadelphia.
There’s no way I’ll do this book justice in a caption, but it’s probably one of the best historical fiction books I’ve read recently (probably because it’s also science fiction, if I’m being honest). @roostercalls posted an “all vibes, no thoughts” review of Atomic Anna a while back, which first landed this book on my radar, and now that I’m sitting here trying to write a review, I’m with Erin on the complexities of this book providing structure but not overtaking the prose.
Rachel Barenbaum gives us characters with such depth, you can’t help but think they are real. Anna’s story arc might provide the backbone, but Molly’s struggles give the book a tangible pain, while Raisa’s timeline provides hope and scientific curiosity. Unlike many dual-timeline historical fiction books, this takes advantage of Anna’s own theory of time travel: of past, present, and future being everywhere at once, and wrapping all three women’s stories so tightly together as to make them inseparable. I appreciated the scientific explanations scattered through the book, and this is now up there with Connie Willis’s books as one of my favorite theories of time travel.
About a week after Lindsay recommended the book to me, I found an ARC of Atomic Anna in an LFL. I held on to it while I waited for a library copy of the audiobook. Now, I might purchase a finished copy and return the ARC to the wild for the next reader.