A sweeping multigenerational novel about idealism, betrayal, and family secrets set in the U.S. and Russia, from one of Granta&;s Best of Young American NovelistsWhen the Great Depression hits, Florence Fein leaves Brooklyn College for a job in Moscow&;and the promise of love and independence. But once in Russia, she quickly becomes entangled in a country she can&;t escape. Many years later, Florence&;s son, Julian, immigrates back to the United States, though his work in the oil industry takes him on frequent visits to Moscow. When he learns that Florence&;s KGB file has been opened, he arranges a business trip to uncover the truth about his mother, and to convince his son, Lenny&;trying to make his fortune in Putin&;s cutthroat Russia&;to return home. What Julian discovers is both chilling and heartbreaking: an untold story of a generation of Americans abandoned by their country, and the secret history of two rival nations colluding under the cover of enmity. The Patriots is a riveting evocation of the Cold War years, told with brilliant insight and extraordinary skill. Alternating between Florence&;s and Julian&;s perspectives, it is at once a mother-son story and a tale of two countries bound in a dialectic dance; a love story and a spy story; both a grand, old-fashioned epic and a contemporary novel of ideas. Through the history of one family moving back and forth between continents over three generations, The Patriots is a poignant tale of the power of love, the rewards and risks of friendship, and the secrets parents and children keep from one another. Praise for The Patriots&;The Patriots is a historical romance in the old style: multigenerational, multi-narrative, intercontinental, laden with back stories and historical research, moving between scrupulous detail and sweeping panoramas, the first-person voice and a kaleidoscopic third, melodrama and satire, Cleveland in 1933 and Moscow in 2008.&;&;Nathaniel Rich, The New York Times Book Review&;Dazzling and addictive . . . an outstanding family saga.&;&;The Spectator (U.K.)&;Extraordinary . . . The Patriots has the weight of a classic."&;Commentary Magazine &;I found on every page an observation so acute, a sentence of such truth and shining detail, that it demanded re-reading for the sheer pleasure of it. The Patriots has convinced me that Krasikov belongs among the totemic young writers of her era.&;&;Khaled Hosseini, author of And the Mountains Echoed and The Kite Runner Read Less