The Dissident

This enjoyably absurd if sometimes unwieldy Cold War farce from Goldberg (The Chateau) is set in the mid-’70s Soviet Union and begins with Viktor Moroz, a Jewish “refusenik” and the titular dissident, discovering a gruesome double murder on his wedding day. The KGB knows that Viktor, who is desperate to leave the U.S.S.R. and emigrate to Israel with his new wife, Oksana, was at the scene of the murders, and gives him nine days to solve the crimes, lest he become a suspect himself. But this is no ordinary whodunit: Goldberg goes for something much more kaleidoscopic, introducing an enormous cast of characters (including several real-life figures, Henry Kissinger among them) and peppering the narrative with lengthy asides on literature, history, and geopolitics. The result often trades narrative thrust for painstaking portraiture of Soviet Jewish life, but Goldberg is an impressively encyclopedic guide. Readers looking for an ambitious, off the beaten path comedic mystery will find plenty to enjoy. Agent: Josh Getzler, HG Literary. (June)