What Happened to Anna K.
A Novel

In her debut novel, Irina Reyn writes lovely, luminous prose in a gentle, intelligent style. What kept me anchored to this story was her eloquent narrative flow--her evocative passages and her penetrating look at Russian Jewish immigrant life in Queens. What ultimately fizzled and fell short for me......more

I read this book primarily because it's being considered for a book fair. I'll admit, the cover page intrigued me. A tale of a young woman searching for love --all the good stuff. This book, based on the story of Anna Karenina by Tolstoy is set in modern day NYC with Anna K, a woman of 30-40ish year......more

Not bad at all! The author does some smart things to make some of the Anna Karenina plot fit a modern setting, but the characters lack life and depth. Recasting the cavalry officer Vronsky as an adjunct English professor, for example, is just inexplicable! Hardly the wealthy, dashing, romantic hero......more

I tried hard to like this one. A modern day Anna Karenina sounds like a good read. But it wasn't. I liked the writing, mostly. But the characters were not likeable. Not even Anna K. So, for some nice sentences and a what sounded like a good plot, it got two stars. I wish I had liked it better. Oh we......more

I ended up starting and finishing this book in the same night. I had read Anna Karenina, so not like I expected the ending to be that much different, but the story really swept me up. It's a modern retelling of the story, but set in the U.S., but with Russian immigrants. Very intriguing and worth re......more