The Little Russian

Sherman, co-creator of the television show That’s So Raven, makes an impressive fiction debut with an epic tale of war’s transformative effects on one Russian woman and her family. As a teenage girl at the beginning of the 20th century, Berta Lorkis is sent from the Ukraine, or “Little Russia,” to become a temporary playmate for a distant relation in Moscow, leaving behind her working-class Jewish family and becoming entranced with Moscow’s sophistication and wealth. When her relation is married off, however, Berta is sent back to Mosny, where she longs for the luxurious life she’d grown accustomed to in the big city. After a year of misery, she marries the wealthy Haykel “Hershel” Gregorvich Alshonsky, and moves with him to a more affluent area where they start a family. Hershel, though a merchant, smuggles guns and helps his fellow Jews fight the Russian peasants. On the eve of WWI, a smuggling mission goes awry and Hershel must flee to America, but Berta refuses to go, preferring her life of leisure and finery over the potential hardships of a new country. But the war consumes her wealth and forces her evolution from vapid snob to endearing survivalist. As the novel progresses into the revolution, the narrative begins to feel rushed, but Sherman succeeds with her epic, sweeping arc and auspicious period setting. (Jan.)