Atomic Anna by Rachel Barenbaum

Name of Book: Atomic Anna

Author: Rachel Barenbaum 

ISBN: 978-1-5387-3486-5

Publisher: Grand Central

Type of book: Russia, Armenia, time travel, science, 1917, 1940s-1997, family, nation, Chernobyl, hideaway, art, expression, talent, mathematics, science, growing up, adoptive families, families, secrets, life, death, alternative timelines, changes 

Year it was published: 2022

Summary:

From the author of A Bend in the Stars, an epic adventure as three generations of women work together and travel through time to prevent the Chernobyl disaster and right the wrongs of their past.

 

Three brilliant women.

Two life-changing mistakes.

One chance to reset the future.

In 1986, renowned nuclear scientist, Anna Berkova, is sleeping in her bed in the Soviet Union when Chernobyl’s reactor melts down. It’s the exact moment she tears through time—and it’s an accident. When she opens her eyes, she’s landed in 1992 only to discover Molly, her estranged daughter, shot in the chest. Molly, with her dying breath, begs Anna to go back in time and stop the disaster, to save Molly’s daughter Raisa, and put their family’s future on a better path.

In ‘60s Philadelphia, Molly is coming of age as an adopted refusenik. Her family is full of secrets and a past they won’t share. She finds solace in comic books, drawing her own series, Atomic Anna, and she’s determined to make it as an artist. When she meets the volatile, charismatic Viktor, their romance sets her life on a very different course.

In the ‘80s, Raisa, is a lonely teen and math prodigy, until a quiet, handsome boy moves in across the street and an odd old woman shows up claiming to be her biological grandmother. As Raisa finds new issues of Atomic Anna in unexpected places, she notices each comic challenges her to solve equations leading to one impossible conclusion: time travel. And she finally understands what she has to do.

As these remarkable women work together to prevent the greatest nuclear disaster of the 20th century, they grapple with the power their discoveries hold. Just because you can change the past, does it mean you should? 

Characters:

Main characters include Anna Berkova, a Jewish orphan who has lost her mother shortly before Russian revolution, and her father to alcoholism. She is a brilliant and talented physicist who worked on nuclear reactor in Chernobyl and who seems more happier being alone than with others. She isn't warm and motherly. Molly is Anna's daughter, a troubled and supremely talented artist who desires to become and create a comic book titled ATOMIC ANNA based on her mother's tales. The people who raised her were Anna's best friends. Raisa is Molly's daughter who is a brilliant mathematician and who also longs to find her missing mother and will do whatever it takes to accomplish those goals. 

Theme:

Can you change your life by going back in time? 

Plot:

The story is in third person narrative from Anna's, Mollys and Raisas points of views. Each of the three women are drawn with a skillful and deft hand. This is also a non linear story and deals with three timelines. First half would be Anna's and Molly's, and next half Anna's and Raisas. The author does label the chapters as to whom is speaking and telling the story, and it isn't until the end that the reader realizes how these three stories become puzzles and relate to one another. Truly a wonderful and breathtaking journey. 

Author Information:
(From goodreads)

Rachel's debut novel is A Bend In The Stars. It has been named a New York Times Summer Reading Selection and a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection. It is also a Boston Globe Bestseller. Rachel is a prolific writer and reviewer whose work has appeared in the LA Review of Books, the Tel Aviv Review of Books, LitHub, and DeadDarlings. She has been an Honorary Research Associate at the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute at Brandeis University and is a graduate of GrubStreet’s Novel Incubator. She is also the founder of Debut Spotlight and the Debut Editor at A Mighty Blaze. In a former life she was a hedge fund manager and a spin instructor. She has degrees from Harvard in Business and Literature and Philosophy

Opinion:

I am not a science fiction fan. I have tried science fiction class in college, but honestly I couldn't stomach reading it. However, with some recent novels, namely Rachel Barenbaum whose books literally sing to my soul ( I finished this one and her debut months ago but they are still in my thoughts a lot,) I am definitely thinking that perhaps I had the wrong professor and have read the wrong stories. ATOMIC ANNA by Rachel Barenbaum definitely has a feeling of being more autobiographical as well as highly relatable, and it asks very difficult questions of the readers: what will you do to change life? What is more important if you can't have it all? Along with those questions, I appreciate her presentation of Soviet Jewry and of her amazing and unforgettable characters in the three generations of women. With all that being said, when will third novel come out? 

This was given for review 

4 out of 5
(0: Stay away unless a masochist 1: Good for insomnia 2: Horrible but readable; 3: Readable and quickly forgettable, 4: Good, enjoyable 5: Buy it, keep it and never let it go.)