Examines the psychological trauma Stalinism continues to unleash – even on those who never lived during his reign... Antonina W. Bouis has translated the best of Soviet and post-Soviet writings [...] and the ease with which she renders Mr. Lebedev's prose creates the illusion that both his novels were originally written in English'

Wall Street Journal

Depicts objects in a stunningly, almost freakishly precise way, coaxing the metaphysical to express itself through the material... In The Year of the Comet, coming of age is not about first love, or the discovery of sexuality, it is rather about the fatefulness of action'

Times Literary Supplement

The Year of the Comet is a touching portrait of bonds that span generations

World Literature Today

This gorgeously written, unsettling novel – a rare work about the fall of the Soviet Union as told through the eyes of a child – leaves us with a fresh understanding of that towering moment in recent history

Kirkus Reviews

This is a smart, convincing, and affecting novel

Publishers Weekly