Alternating between Florence’s and Julian’s perspectives, it is at once a mother-son story and a tale of two countries bound in a dialectic dance a love story and a spy story both a grand, old-fashioned epic and a contemporary novel of ideas. The Patriots is a riveting evocation of the Cold War years, told with brilliant insight and extraordinary skill. What he discovers is both chilling and heartbreaking: an untold story of what happened to a generation of Americans abandoned by their country. His work in the oil industry takes him on frequent visits to Moscow, and when he learns that Florence’s KGB file has been opened, he arranges a business trip to uncover the truth about his mother, and to convince his son, Lenny, who is trying to make his fortune in the new Russia, to return home. Many years later, Florence’s son, Julian, will make the opposite journey, immigrating back to the United States. But once in Russia, she quickly becomes entangled in a country she can’t escape. When the Great Depression hits, Florence Fein leaves Brooklyn College for what appears to be a plum job in Moscow-and the promise of love and independence. A sweeping multigenerational debut novel about idealism, betrayal, and family secrets that takes us from Brooklyn in the 1930s to Soviet Russia to post-Cold War America
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