The Dissident

A thrilling, witty, and slyly original Cold War mystery about a ragtag group of Jewish refuseniks in Moscow.

On his wedding day in 1976, Viktor Moroz stumbles upon a murder scene: two gay men, one of them a US official, are axed to death in Moscow. Viktor, a Jewish refusenik, is stuck in Russia due to the government’s denial of his application to leave for Israel; he sits “in refusal” alongside his wife and their community of intellectuals. But then the KGB spots Viktor leaving the murder scene. Plucked off the street, he’s given a choice: find the real murderer or become a suspect. His deadline is nine days later, when Henry Kissinger is arriving in Moscow.

A whip-smart, often hilarious Cold War thriller, Paul Goldberg’s The Dissident explores what it means to survive in the face of impossible choices and monumental consequences. To solve the case, Viktor ropes in his community, which includes his banned-text-distributing wife, a hard-drinking sculptor, a Russian priest of Jewish heritage, and a visiting American intent on reliving World War II heroics. As Viktor struggles to figure out whom to trust, he’s forced to question not only the KGB’s motives but also those of his fellow refuseniks—and the man he admires above all: the Secretary of State himself.

Immersive, unpredictable, and always ax-sharp, The Dissident is Cold War intrigue at its most inventive: an uncompromising look at sacrifice, community, and the scars of history and identity, from an expert storyteller.