Publisher's Weekly Review
Celt's disquieting second novel (following The Daughters) is set in an America distrustful of the newly formed U.S.S.R. Unfolding via an assortment of unreliable documents, it is the story of Zoya Andropova, a young Soviet refugee orphaned under grim circumstances in the late 1920s, who is placed on a transport ship full of children bound for America and given a scholarship to a private girls' school in New Jersey. In spite of mental and physical abuse by her snobbish classmates, Zoya graduates and takes a job in the school's greenhouse. She begins a torrid affair with a fellow Russian émigré, the well-known writer Lev Orlov, who has come with his wife, Vera, to teach at the school. In this dangerous trio, Orlov and Vera resemble the Nabokovs. Here, Vera exerts a powerful and erotic sway over Orlov, and later Zoya, as well. When Orlov embarks on a futile trip to Russia to recover a lost manuscript, both he and Vera ask Zoya to commit unconscionable acts in the name of love. Though the ending is implausible, it's nonetheless cleverly twisted. This is an incendiary and provocative novel about obsession. (June) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Trembling with atmosphere, Celt's (The Daughters, 2015) second novel follows a young Russian migr as she becomes embroiled in a sinister love triangle with a brilliant novelist and his exceptional wife.Constructed as a "collection of papers" bequeathed by one Vera Orlov to the posh girls' boarding school where her husband taught before his untimely death, the book begins with the end. Leo "Lev" Orlov was murdered in 1931, according to the opening "note on the text"; the same year, a young Donne School employee, Zoe "Zoya" Andropov, "died under hotly debated circumstances." The storyprimarily told through Zoya's supposed diary entries and Lev's lettersis about everything that happened before. The child of political dissidents, Zoya arrives in New Jersey on a ship of orphans and finds herself an out-of-place charity case at the Donne School, a dark outcast amid shiny American wealth. But while the other girls move on to college or marriage or secretarial jobs after graduation, Zoya stays on, tending the school's greenhouse under the tutelage of the kindly gardener and obsessing, in her spare hours, over the otherworldly novels of the great Leo Orlov. And then, outside her greenhouse window in New Jersey, there he is: Lev Orlov. Encouraged by his beautiful, ice-cold wifethe engine of his careerhe's teaching at the school. Immediately, he and Zoya, fellow Russians with upbringings on opposite sides of a vast cultural divideshe's a peasant, he's the son of White Russian wealthfall into a passionate affair. But as Zoya becomes increasingly involved with the Orlovs, she begins to understand that their relationship is darker and more tangled than she'd bargained for, and she finds herself a half-witting pawn for them both. An ominous snowball of a novel (very) loosely based on the Nabokov marriage, with a slow-burning first half and a second half that hurtles toward inevitable catastrophe, it's a book that requires some patience, but that patiencecarefully calculatedpays off in spades.Rich and moody. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Zoya Andropova's life is not easy. After the Russian Revolution costs her both parents, she ends up as a scholarship student at Donne School, an elite girls' academy in 1920s New Jersey. Fellow Russian Leo Orlov, an author whose work has always entranced Zoya, lands a teaching position at Donne. Their subsequent affair sparks a passion that has astounding effects. Celt's (The Daughters, 2015) literary novel, inspired by Vladimir Nabokov's relationship with his wife, Véra (Orlov's wife is also named Véra), has all the delicious tension of a psychological thriller, the mysteries dissected in prose as sharp and precise as a scalpel. Insights into the human mind combine with an assured story structure that explores themes of class, sex, and an outsider's perspective on the U.S. Véra's icy sophistication, the casual cruelty of well-mannered girls (reminiscent of Margaret Atwood's Cat's Eye, 1988), and the dangerous self-absorption of an acclaimed author meld with obsession and a claustrophobic sense of place. The result is a novel that packs all the punch of the very best noir only with more depth. Highly recommended.--Latham, Bethany Copyright 2018 Booklist
Library Journal Review
In the mid-1920s, 16-year-old orphaned refugee Zoya Andropova begins a new life at a posh East Coast boarding school, far from her Moscow roots. It is a rocky start, given fading memories of her parents and homeland and persistent bullying from mean classmates. After graduation, she puts her green thumb to use as the school's new manager of hothouse plants. Another addition to staff that semester is fellow Russian émigré Leo Orlov, arriving with his enigmatic wife, Vera. Leo happens to be Zoya's favorite author, and her excitement about his presence at the school soon sparks a relationship between them. But Vera proves to be a formidable complication, and twists and turns abound as Zoya must decide where her allegiances can intersect with her best chance at lasting happiness. Award-winning novelist (The Daughters)and cartoonist Celt (LoveAmongtheLampreys.com) blends an intricate and engrossing tale of a young woman's awakening sexuality with a look at the political realism of a young Soviet Union, the class and social conflicts of elite educational institutions, and a dash of horticulture. VERDICT At once a taut psychological thriller and a sensitive character study; fans of each should rejoice.--Jennifer B. -Stidham, Houston Community Coll. Northeast © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.