Irina Reyn is the author of the novel What Happened to Anna K., published by Touchstone/Simon & Schuster.
UPDATE: WHAT HAPPENED TO ANNA K. WINS GOLDBERG AWARD FOR JEWISH FICTION BY EMERGING WRITERS
Watch a video of Irina Reyn@ GOOGLE:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boJ489xuCzw
ANNA K. IS BEST FICTION BOOK OF 2008:
WHAT HAPPENED TO ANNA K. was selected as one of ten Best Fiction Books of 2008 by Entertainment Weekly.
ANNA K. appeared on San Francisco Chronicle's Best Fiction of 2008
Washington Post's 'Media Mix' column chose ANNA K. as one of the 'Best Books of the Year'
WHAT HAPPENED TO ANNA K. WAS INDIEBOUND'S INDIE NEXT PICK FOR AUGUST 2008!
"Irina Reyn's contemporary take on Anna Karenina is not a remake or a parody or even an homage, but its own story, twice-told, you might say. Filled like a blintz with references to all things Russian, this fast-paced yet ever-atmospheric tale of love and illusion (and disillusion) has the weight of a novel with things on its mind. You will be happy to entertain this second story." --Stephen F. Shapiro, Rainy Day Books, Fairway, KS
(For more press about the novel, please see the News and Events page.)
Please visit the Books page to order your copy of What Happened to Anna K. today!
A debut novel that skillfully retells the classic tragedy of Anna Karenina by setting it in present-day New York City within a community of Russian-Jewish immigrants.
What Happened to Anna K. on NPR's "Morning Edition"
Read an interview with Irina Reyn in the Wall Street Journal.
Listen to Irina Reyn on "Studio 360."
See News and Events page for more media surrounding What Happened to Anna K.
Praise for What Happened to Anna K.:
“Smarter by far than many potentially commercial novels and despite the gimmick at its core, a credible freestanding work on such Tolstoyan topics as love, society, shopping and immigration.”
-- Sara Nelson, Publishers Weekly
“Set among early 21st-century Russian Jewish immigrants in New York City, Reyn's debut beautifully adapts Anna Karenina's social melodrama for a decidedly different set of Russians. . . [her] sparkling insight into the Russian and Bukharan Jewish communities, and the mesmerizing intensity of her prose, make this debut a worthy remake.”
-- Publishers Weekly
“Offers wit and insight, and a pungent portrait of New York.”
-- Kirkus Reviews
"With all the finery of a Gucci handbag and a perfectly fitted mink coat, Reyn captures and reveals the intricately layered culture of 'sausage immigrants...' Her characters inhabit the interstitial place between immigration and assimilation, tradition and innovation, poised to create a postmodern culture of their own design."-- Booklist (starred)
“This witty, psychologically astute and immensely pleasurable novel is something of a miracle. By dint of some divine stubbornness, the author has folded the Tolstoyan paradigm of grandeur and regret into our pettier, shallower age, and illuminated both in the process. I know of no recent first novel that has better captured the way we live now, with as assured a sense of comedy and compassion.”
-- Phillip Lopate, author of Waterfront and Portrait of My Body
“Irina Reyn has done the impossible: she has re-imagined one of mankind's very best novels, and made it beautifully her own. That she has not diminished Tolstoy but updated him -- freshened him for the strange, sensuous time in which we live – is as wondrous a feat as I can recall in contemporary fiction.”
-- Darin Strauss, author of Chang and Eng and More Than It Hurts You
“Two of the older emigre characters in What Happened to Anna K. point out that they survived decades of Stalinism; do they not now deserve Danielle Steele? I would not dare to venture an answer. I will say, though, that what every emigre community does deserve is a few fearless, insightful, and penetrating young voices both to announce an arrival and sing an elegy. Irina Reyn is one of those voices, and her first novel is as charming as it is sad, as funny as it is revelatory.”
-- Tom Bissell, author of God Lives in St. Petersburg and The Father of All Things
“Irina Reyn's sly wit and perfect-pitch dialogue make this modern-day retelling of Anna Karenina a delight to read. Reyn is a cunning writer who knows her subject--Russian Jewish immigrants in New York City—inside out, and casts a skeptical glance at their habits, aspirations, and thwarted destinies. Readers should love this novel, whether or not they know the original Anna.”
-- Lynne Sharon Schwartz, author of Ruined by Reading and Leaving Brooklyn
“This intricately woven and, frankly, bedazzling novel is more than a retelling of Anna Karenina. It’s a laser sharp portrait of the contemporary Russian-American dream, New York style. Irina Reyn's voice is sophisticated and street smart, and once I became acquainted with her characters I could not put this novel down.”
-- Frederick Reiken, author of The Odd Sea and The Lost Legends of New Jersey
“Irina Reyn's debut offers a feisty reimagining of the original tale, with contemporary Russian-Jewish characters in Queens, Manhattan, and Brooklyn brought to vividly detailed life--and with the conundrums and consolations of immigration itself rendered compassionately and smartly.”
-- Martha Cooley, author of The Archivist and Thirty Three Swoons