Austin Voronkov is a man without a country--born in Russia just before the turn of the 20th century, Austin came to the United States in search of a better life. He made ammunition, rising through the ranks to become a factory inspector and eventually an engineer. In the evenings, he stayed up late, reading books about science and drafting inventions. He soon fell in love; he and Julia took their vows in secret, married in the Russian tradition and in their hearts, if not according to U.S. law.
As news of the Bolshevik Revolution began to reach the U.S., Russians found themselves the target of abuse and suspicion. Austin lacked the English words to protest the government's suspicion of his revolutionary associations, and was deported back to what was now the U.S.S.R. Julia, his loyal wife, followed him, and over the next decade they bounced from Russia to the Ukraine, from Paris to Mexico. They had three children, all born nationless.
After vainly petitioning for permission to return to the U.S., Julia and the children were advised to return without Austin. With Julia advocating from the inside, the bureaucratic wheels were expected to move more quickly. Those weeks stretched into months, then a year, then another, then another.
Vanessa Manko's debut is an anti-adventure novel, a stark portrayal of a man who "wore down his mind" with endless hoping. The Invention of Exile is a portrait of what happens when hoping overtakes the reality of what is hoped for, and when being an exile becomes more important than the place that you once called home. -- Emma Page, bookseller at Island Books in Mercer Island, Wash.