The Tsar of Love and Techno by Anthony Marra

The Tsar of Love and Techno

by Anthony Marra

A Granta Best Young American Novelist

1930s Leningrad: a failed portrait artist employed by Soviet censors must erase political dissenters from official images and artworks. One day, he receives an antique painting. The mystery behind this painting threads together each of the stories that follow, where we meet a Siberian beauty queen, a young soldier in the battlefields of Chechnya, the Head of the Grozny Tourist Bureau, a ballerina performing for the camp director of a gulag and many others.

Reviewed by Artemis on

4 of 5 stars

Share
Reviews at The Artemis Reader

I feel like words cannot accurately describe how much I enjoyed these short stories. Marra manages to produce the ideal mixtape with The Tsar of Love and Techno. Marra returns readers to the terror of Soviet Russia and Stalin’s purges and the challenges of post-Soviet life. From the Siberian mining city of Kirovsk to rural Chechnya, Marra weaves intelligent and thought-provoking stories of choice, chance, history, and fate.

He connects these stories not only through characters, but with objects, to create a vibrant landscape of a story. His characters are well paced throughout each short story, allowing the reader to easily move throughout this unfamiliar, complex world. A worthwhile read!

Last modified on

Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 3 March, 2016: Finished reading
  • 3 March, 2016: Reviewed