From the Bookshelf of Constant Reader…

The Tsar of Love and Techno

Anthony Marra

Start date: April 15, 2017

Finish date: May 1, 2017

Discussion: Reading List

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Reading List

* The Schedule for July through Dec. 2025
By Lynn · 4 posts · 54 views

last updated Nov 15, 2025 02:07PM

The Blackhouse - Discussion (including spoilers)
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What Members Thought

Oct 15, 2015 Jenny (Reading Envy) rated it it was amazing

Shelves: read2015, reviewcopy, location-russia, ebooks, location-chechnya

I received a copy for review from the publisher through NetGalley, but since his first novel was my top read of 2013, I would have and will still buy a copy for my own collection.

I didn't know much about this collection/novel except that I loved the previous novel by the author (I even had my book club read it and they all agreed!). To my great delight, these connected stories have ties to A Constellation of Vital Phenomena. I think they are cohesive without having read that novel, but since I h ...more

30 likes · Like · see review

Mar 10, 2017 Jane rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction

This is the best book I've read this year. Extraordinary writing, heartbreak and humor, a fictional history or Russian abuse of power and Siberian destitution, an ode to the power of the imagination, art, and music for resisting oppression. I loved this collection or linked stories. I'll add some passages to give the flavor of the writing which is simply astonishing.

Here's a sample from the chapter The Grozny Tourist Bureau: (Oilmen from Beijing are traveling in a tourist bus to Grozny for a cer ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Sep 18, 2018 Theresa rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I read this book in two days in the hospital, in between naps. Because naps are all you get when someone checks your vitals every two hours round the clock. Isn’t sleep supposed to be healing? I think this is a book about love, albeit love peeking out in a harsh world, like a palimpsest peeking out from a painting. And also a book about selfishness, disguised as or substituting for love. It was a good recovery read for me.

A couple of quotes I especially liked:
“. . . on her best days she couldn’t ...more

1 like · Like · see review