David Bezmozgis on Living in Limbo
En Route to the ?Free World? Author David Bezmozgis. Image by David Franco
David Bezmozgis’s first novel and follow-up to his much-acclaimed 2004 short story collection, “Natasha,” is about a family in limbo, caught between the world they have left and the “Free World,” of the book’s title, to which they are headed. They are the Krasnanskys, Soviet Jews, who like Bezmozgis and his family, left the Soviet Union and instead of going to Israel, decided to make their way to the West. The book tells the story of the summer months of 1978, which they spend waiting in the suburbs of Rome for their visas to come through.
<strong>Subscribe to Forward podcasts on iTunes</strong>
Produced by Allison Yarrow and Nate Lavey.
A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
