Now in Paperback

I’m excited to announce that Your Presence Is Mandatory comes out in paperback on December 16! With a lovely new look, I hope you pre-order one today. It would make the perfect snowy gift for the holidays (Christmas, Hanukkah or even Soviet New Year’s). Strong pre-orders tell bookstores to stock Your Presence Is Mandatory, which will allow me to keep up this authoring gig a little longer.

This cover was inspired by the French edition of my novel. My team at Bloomsbury loved the snowy design of the French so much that they decided to adapt it for the paperback. I hope the new look will help get it into the hands of readers who love historical fiction, cozy winter reads or just need more blue books for their bookshelf.

To celebrate the launch, I’m having a reading party on December 16 where I’ll share the stage with a few of my close author friends: Olga Zilberbourg, Lee Kravetz, Heather Grzych, Jacqueline Doyle and Molly Antopol. I’m doing a couple of other little events, but not going all out as I’ve done over 50 events over the past 1.5 years since the book came out.

What I’m Reading

Fiction: In The Undead by Svetlana Satchkova, Maya is a debut Russian film director making a zombie flick where Lenin comes back to life, when suddenly… what she fears isn’t what gets her. It’s a dark and funny reflection of art in an era of repression. I’m interviewing Svetlana for Electric Lit, so look out for that in January.

Nonfiction: Motherland by Julia Ioffe is narrative nonfiction on the history of women and feminism of Soviet and post-Soviet Russia. Finalist for the National Book Award.

On my nightstand: Awake in the Floating City by Susanna Kwan about a caretaking relationship blooming in a flooded future San Francisco. In the Shadow of the Holocaust: Short Fiction by Jewish Writers from the Soviet Union, edited & translated by Sasha Senderovich and Harriet Murav.

Happy Thanksgiving to you! I’m grateful to any of you who read my newsletter or my book. Thank you!

xx Sasha

Holy moly! I won California Book Award & Sami Rohr Prize

I’m beyond excited to announce that I’m the winner of not just one, but two incredibly prestigious awards. How that happened I honestly don’t know. I’m not being facetious. There are certain things that I expected from publishing my novel, some of which happened and some of which didn’t. But these two awards weren’t something I expected. Which makes it all the more rewarding.

First off, Your Presence Is Mandatory won the California Book Award for First Fiction! Given that this book takes place very far from California and the huge number of amazing books that come out from California authors, I was really surprised and hugely honored. This is the 94th year of the awards and is organized by the Commonwealth Club. The winner for Fiction category (not first, but general) is Percival Everett for James, with the silver medal going to Rachel Kushner for Creation Lake, both tremendous novels.

Please join me for the virtual ceremony on Monday, June 23 6-7pm PST.

On the same week, I found out that I’m the winner of the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature! This annual prize, given on alternate years to fiction and nonfiction works, came as an even bigger shock because there is no nomination process for this award, so I didn’t even know I was in consideration. The ceremony was supposed to be in Jerusalem in early July, but obviously everything got rearranged, so now the ceremony will take place in New York on September 3 (more details to come).

I’m tremendously grateful to judges - all deep lovers of books - for appreciating and recognizing what I tried to do with my book. I feel like it gave Your Presence added literary legitimacy and I hope this recognition will lead to more readers discovering this book.

What I’m Reading

Fiction: Endling by Maria Reva is a novel I’ve long looked forward to reading. It’s an absurdist story of three Ukrainian women, a snail, and a truck full of foreign bachelors. Reva was working on it before the full-scale invasion began and it altered the book in incredibly interesting ways. Don’t miss it.

Nonfiction: Our Dear Friends in Moscow by Andrei Soldatov & Irina Borogan, a couple of exiled Russian journalists who track how their friends fell into working for Putin propaganda machine.

On my nightstand: The Night Sparrow by Shelly Sanders (we’re doing an event together in SF on July 17) about a female sniper in the Red Army.

I hope you’re taking occasional breaks from the world’s craziness. My heart goes out to friends & their loved ones in Ukraine, Israel and Iran.