Любожид

by Edward Topol, Edward Topol

Joseph Rubinchik is a nonpracticing Jew, a journalist whose soft-spoken sexual magnetism attracts goddesslike young women as he travels on assignment across Russia. KGB agent Oleg Dmitryevich Barsky intends to stir up riots against the Jews by exposing Rubinchik's myriad seductions.

To aid him, Barsky blackmails the beguiling Anna Evgenyevna to be his investigative prosecutor by threatening to reveal a scandalous affair in her past. But unbeknownst to Barsky, Rubinchik was Anna's first lover and she still has deep feelings for him. Furious at being forced into such a position, Anna instead investigates Barsky, discovering a past that could well destroy the scheming agent, and setting up a triangle that threatens to consume them all.

Already a number-one bestseller in Russia, The Jewish Lover is a sexy, poignant, violent--and at times wildly funny--thriller that chronicles the struggle of two bitter enemies. With impeccable skill and stunning imagination, Edward Topol re-creates the refusenik culture of the 1970s and transports the reader deep into a Soviet Union known only to a few.

491 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 1998

About the author

Edward Vladimirovich Topol (Russian: Эдуард Владимирович Тополь; real name Topelberg (Russian: Топельберг; born 8 October 1938) is a Russian novelist.

Born in Baku, Topol spent his teenage years finishing local school in Baku and graduated from Azerbaijan State Economic University.[1] He also did his military service in Estonia. He worked as journalist for newspapers such as Bakinskiy Rabochiy and Komsomolskaya Pravda and wrote the screenplays for seven movies, of which two were banned due to censorship under the Soviet government.

In 1978 he emigrated to USA, New York, and lived for short periods in Boston, Toronto and Miami.

Reviews

[Chuck]

This is a complex story about anti-Semitism in 1970s Russia during the
Leonid Brezhnev era. A KGB colonel learns of a Jewish journalist with a
penchant for seducing pretty, young Russian women. Colonel Barsky begins
building a case against the journalist with the idea of prosecuting him in a huge, nationally publicized show trial. It is a good plot but the author keeps jumping back and forth between now and the first century which makes it hard to follow. It also contains some highly unlikely relationships.

[Margaret]

This book was the beginning of my ongoing Topol addiction. How can you not love his winning combination of sex, vodka, and Kremlin corruption? His dark-eyed, crumpled heroes and nubile, fearless heroines could win the heart of the greatest Russia skeptic. My favorite Soviet pulp fiction. Thank God he emigrated when he did.

[Gennadiy Tsygan]

A mixed bag. Some of the Soviet era scenes are described in beautiful and realistic details, while other are nothing but attempts to raise the level of drama. The numerous sex scenes are among the most cringe worthy I have ever encountered. Probably added by the dry monotonous audiobook narration.