Tender

What if Nabokov's Lolita were not a teenage girl longed for by an older man, but was instead a boy, romanced and manipulated by a middle-aged woman? Determined to rise above his bleak future as a Jewish boy in 1970s Russia, Sasha is drawn into a subversive intellectual Wonderland by his eccentric teacher, Isabella Orlov. When Sasha succumbs to a forbidden love affair with Isabella, the education he desperately needs - in order to avoid the draft - also becomes his sexual awakening. Filled with Slavic humor and cultural insights, TENDER will enchant readers who enjoyed Anya Ulynich's Petropolis and Alina Bronsky's Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine. Rich with emotional intelligence, this captivating tale reveals the class struggles and anti-Semitic attitudes so common in Russia, inviting us to reexamine our understanding of societal norms and our own core values.