The Invention of Exile

June 9, 2014
An incident from her own family history inspired Manko’s fine fiction debut, in which Austin Voronkov, a Russian engineer and inventor, emigrates to the U.S. in 1913 and finds employment as an inspector at an armaments factory in Bridgeport, Conn. Falsely accused of being an anarchist, Austin is deported back to Russia; his new American wife, Julia, accompanies him. The couple make their way to Mexico, where Julia gives birth to three children and is eventually permitted to return to the U.S. with them. But Austin isn’t allowed back into the States and stays behind. Most of the novel is set in Mexico City in 1948. There the exiled Austin finds himself caught in a bureaucratic nightmare, unable to cross the border and shadowed by an intimidating FBI agent named Jack. The beating heart of Manko’s story is Austin’s determination to be reunited with his family

Starred review from June 1, 2014
A man separated from his family for years reckons with his isolation in Manko's debut, a superb study of statelessness.In 1920, Austin (born Ustin) Voronkov was a Russian immigrant working as an engineer in Connecticut, married to an American woman and preparing to raise a family. But the Russian Revolution prompted a wave of red-menace paranoia in the United States, and Austin is deported after he's bullied into saying he's an anarchist. By 1948, when much of this novel is set, he's living alone in Mexico City and scraping out a living doing odd-job repairs for the locals. His wife and three children, whom he hasn't seen in 14 years, are back in the States, while Austin is all but drowning in the paperwork he believes will secure him passage out of Mexico: letters to ambassadors and legislators and patent applications for inventions he's only dimly aware are outdated. A story framed around so much waiting and bureaucratic listlessness ought to feel drab and slow, but Manko brings plenty of energy to this tale. That's partly due to the fact that she cannily shifts back and forth in time, recalling the fleeting moments of joy and togetherness Austin had, particularly a brief stint in Mazatlan running a lighthouse. (A bit metaphorically unsubtle, perhaps, but Manko uses light and glass metaphors in rich and complicated ways throughout the book.) Just as important, Manko is a tremendous stylist, using clipped, simple sentences to capture Austin's mindset as his confidence in escape erodes but never entirely fades; Manko's shift in perspective toward the end of the book reveals just how much the years of exile have weathered him. She deeply explores two complicated questions: What is the impact of years of lacking a country? And how much does this lack reside in our imaginations?A top-notch debut, at once sober and lively and provocative.

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March 15, 2014
Trust Penguin Press to offer historically informed fiction. Early 1900s Russian immigrant Austin Voronkov is a happily married father of two in Bridgeport, CT. But after tripping over his English while responding to accusations that he attended an anarchist gathering, the family must flee first to revolutionary Russia, then Mexico--where Austin remains, in daily touch by letter, after the rest of the family is allowed to return home.

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August 1, 2014
In 1920, Austin Voronkov, a young engineer working as an arms inspector in Bridgeport, Connecticut, is rounded up with a group of Russians and interrogated for days. The relentless questioning and Austin's fledging grasp of English causes him to confess to being an anarchist when pressed, which leads to his deportation. Austin is forced to return to Russia with his new American bride, Julia, thus beginning a decades-long exile that eventually leads Austin, Julia, and their three children to Mexico. While Julia successfully petitions to be allowed to return to the U.S. with their children, Austin's request is denied. Believing they'll only be separated for a few months, Julia takes the children back to Bridgeport, while Austin spends years trying to curry favor with the U.S. government by seeking patents for his various inventions, hoping to win a reversal of his deportation. Based in part on her own grandparents' experience, Manko's debut is a potent examination of the costs of pride and fear as well as the redemptive power of familial bonds.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)