You Are One of Them: A Novel about Secrets, Betrayal, and the Friend Who Got Away, (Paperback)

from LynnB

This is a story about defection: spies defecting to Russia during the cold war, and personal defections as the main character (Sarah) loses loved ones to death and to divorce. The book is well written with strong characters and a compelling story. Ms. Holt has done a great job of weaving the stor...

from LeeFishman

The Cold War is back. The days of U. S. Soviet détente have re-emerged on current television channels with shows such as the Americans, The Neighbors and even recent episodes of Dr. Who. Those were the days when Khrushchev warned, "We will bury you." Has enough time has passed for those who lived...

from DeltaQueen50

You Are One of Them by Elliot Holt is a coming-of-age tale set against the backdrop of the fear and anxiety that gripped America during the cold war. In 1982, two ten year old girls compose letters to the leader of the Soviet Union, Yuri Andropov. One of these little girls, Jenny, gets not only a...

from ParadisePorch

(Fiction, American) Set during the Cold War, this story revolves around a community of young Americans living and working in Moscow. I had a difficult time deciding on a rating of 3 or 3½ stars. In the end I came down on the side of readability. Read this if: if you'd like a low-key spy novel. 3½...

from KatieANYC

[mild spoilers] Holt is a very mature, disciplined writer. She ends paragraphs beautifully, without any of that extra debut-novel flab one so often finds. Her central metaphor, that of political defection as a kind of personal rejection, is an incredibly powerful one in that it makes both defecti...