2026 looks like another year of a lot of interesting and diverse books coming out of the post-Soviet diaspora. This year these books often touch on important issues, from Chernobyl to immigration to art under authoritarianism to women’s issues and the Holocaust. Not a light & fluffy list, I know, but then it’s not looking like a light & fluffy year either. Here is the chronological list of FSU books coming out in 2026.
Svetlana Satchkova, THE UNDEAD | fiction | Melville House | January
The Undead is a story of a young and naive Russian filmmaker Maya working on a zombie flick, when she suddenly gets caught in the jaws of the authoritarian machine.
Yelena Moskovich, NADEZHDA IN THE DARK | poetry/fiction | Dzanc Books | January
This unique novel-in-verse centers on a couple sitting in today’s Berlin - the narrator from Ukraine, her girlfriend from Russia - contemplating history, literature, music, sex, life.
IN THE SHADOW OF THE HOLOCAUST transl. by Sasha Senderovich & Harriet Murav | fiction | Stanford University Press | February
A short story collection by various Soviet Jewish authors written, in Russian and Yiddish, in the aftermath of the Holocaust.
Maxim Matusevich, SIX TRAINS OF NO RETURN | fiction | Academic Studies Press | March
This is a collection of twelve short stories and novellas that spans the globe (from Cambodia to Russia to Nigeria to Israel) and examines dislocations that are both uniquely personal and universal.
Irena Smith, TROIKA | memoir | She Writes Press | April
A lyrical, woven memoir about a three-woman road trip in California, whose tendrils dig deep into family history, loss, and connection.
Katya Suvorova, UNGRATEFUL IMMIGRANT DAUGHTER: A Memoir from the Child of a Mail-Order Bride | memoir | Alcove Press | September 29
Suvorova’s wild ride of a memoir explores the true consequences of the great 'American Dream' through stories of a uniquely turbulent childhood spent dealing with the precarious consequences of a mother’s decision to leave Russia for the unknown.
Julia Ioffe, MOTHERLAND: A Feminist History of Modern Russia, from Revolution to Autocracy | nonfiction paperback | Ecco |
In this sweeping historical narrative that has won the Jewish Book Award, Soviet-born journalist Julia Ioffe traces the history of women in Russia from its vanguard embrace of feminism in the early 20th century to the current embrace of conservative Christian values.