Praise for My Mother's Secret
"An eye opening family saga. Adams weaves an engrossing tale through little known history that feels both exotic and chillingly familiar. My Mother's Secret will stay with you long after you've read the last page."
- Kyra Davis, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Just One Night, Pure Sin and Sophie Katz series
"My Mother's Secret by Alina Adams is a page-turner that has it all: a compelling mystery, sharp insights into Soviet history, a sense of humor, and a complicated and fascinating cast of characters to boot."
- Maria Kuznetsova, author of Oksana, Behave! and Something Unbelievable
"Alina Adams' My Mother's Secret is smart and sumptuous, wry and thoroughly immersive. It transports you to an important moment in Soviet-Jewish history that is more relevant than ever. A triumph."
- Irina Reyn, Goldberg Prize for Jewish Fiction winner and author of The Imperial Wife, Mother Country, and What Happened to Anna K
"Alina Adams captures the fragility, heartbreak, and humor of love. Truly, she had me from the first page."
- Susan Dansby, 7-time Emmy-Award-winning writer, The Young and the Restless, As the World Turns
"With her trademark wit and wisdom, Adams delivers another family saga, full of longing and richly-drawn historical details, that will surprise, delight and-ultimately-captivate you."
- Rebecca Hanover, NYT Times bestselling author of The Similars
10/01/2022
Lena Miropolsky's father, Tom, is dying. Her mother, Regina, met him in a Nazi prisoner of war camp during World War II. Lena's husband, Vadik, is an authoritarian Russian emigré. They have a daughter, Angela. While going through her father's papers, Lena finds information about a man named Aaron Kramer, a Soviet veteran, and asks her mother why her father was searching for him. The story flashes back to Regina's life in Moscow and her flight to Birobidzhan, the Autonomous Jewish Region that Stalin created on the Russian-Chinese border in Siberia. Life there was difficult, with backbreaking work and fear of political betrayal. One never knew who could be trusted. Lena eventually learns why her father was searching for Kramer and accompanies her mother to the Soviet Union to see if he is still alive. The details about Birobidzhan and Stalin's treatment of Jewish people bring a little-known aspect of history to light. Thoroughly American Lena gets a dose of reality while visiting the Soviet Union. VERDICT This story of Russian-Jewish history, dysfunctional family relationships, and romance, from the author of The Nesting Dolls, is a good choice for book clubs.—Barbara M. Bibel