Published: June 7, 2022
Publisher: Pegasus Books
Distributed by: Simon & Schuster
*****
About The Book
A sweeping saga of a Jewish family and community fighting for survival against the ravages of history during the 1917-1921 pogroms in Ukraine.
*****
PRAISE for Tears Over Russia:

“A remarkably vivid account of life in the Old Country that reads at times like a novel—or a series of Sholem Aleichem stories. Aspects of Tears Over Russia have a mythic quality, with larger-than-life characters surmounting impossible circumstances. Riveting.”

– The Forward
*****

"While certainly an elegy to Jews dead, first by pogroms and later the Nazis, it is also a celebration of the essential work of librarians, archivists and genealogists. The bibliography alone makes this a valuable resource. This family history of Kyiv is especially potent in this season of Russian-Ukrainian strife, ironically with a Ukrainian Jew now at the helm...A timely and essential reading."
– Library Journal, Starred Review
*****

“Tears Over Russia is illuminating, well researched, and thoroughly sourced. It will be a boon for genealogists of Jewish ancestry and is a good example of how family lore can be placed in a broader historical context."

– Washington Independent Review of Books
*****

“An evocative and distressing account of her grandmother’s experiences during the wave of anti-Jewish pogroms that swept across Russia and Ukraine in the early 20th century. A vital personal record of Ukraine’s turbulent past.”
– Publishers Weekly
*****

"This meticulously researched book tells the story not only of the author’s family during the anti-Jewish pogroms, from 1917 until their escape to America in 1923, but also the brutalization of Jewish communities throughout Ukraine. [Tears Over Russia] gives the reader insight into the immigrant experience and the terrors that often force them to leave the land they love, losing everything, but gaining freedom."
– Historical Novel Society
*****

"The author has done a service to her grandmother and society by recording the stories of Channa and other Stavishche residents...In Tears Over Russia, Brahin has ensured that the light will stay on."

– New York Journal of Books
*****

"Not only are the stories gripping, and the narrative history easy to read, but the historical timeline is right-on. There are appendices that provide historical detail, and the extensive footnoting provided is evidence of the careful scholarship that Brahin put into this book. May a careful look at this story be an inspiration for us to help those who are – right now – experiencing the same realities, and who – right now – are looking for safe havens somewhere in the world so that they can contribute their creativity, their energy, and their love to the rest of the world."
– Englewood Reviews of Books
*****

"Strug­gle and resilience take cen­ter stage in Lisa Brahin’s Tears Over Rus­sia, a metic­u­lous attempt to recon­struct not only a family’s roots in present-day Ukraine and their tra­vails on their way to Amer­i­ca, but also the intri­ca­cies of the world they left behind....At a time of a record refugee cri­sis in Ukraine and the prospect of fur­ther mass migra­tion, Brahin offers us an oppor­tu­ni­ty to reflect on the pos­si­bil­i­ties and lim­i­ta­tions of the Amer­i­can Dream, and the dreams our fore­fa­thers saw extin­guished in pur­suit of it."

– Jewish Book Council
*****
“Apart from a few harsh passages relating to the pogroms, this work presents reminiscences reminiscent of “Schindler’s List” by Thomas Keneally, “Fiddler on the Roof” by Sholem Aleichem, and Nobel Prize winner Isaac Bashevis Singer’s “The Charlatan.”
--Babelio, Reviewed in French
*****
"This is the kind of book one won’t want to put down, even as it could be written in blood as well as tears."
--George Washington University Magazine