"Outstanding."
The Wall Street Journal
"Lebedev's characters seek ways to cut the umbilical cord with the
past."
--Svetlana Alexievich, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature
This revelatory novel shows why Karl Ove Knausgaard has likened its
celebrated Russian author to an "indomitable ... animal that won't let
go of something when it gets its teeth into it." The book tells the
story of a young Russian named Kirill, the sole survivor of a once
numerous clan of German origin, who delves relentlessly into the
unresolved past. His ancestor, Balthasar Schwerdt, migrated to the
Russian Empire in the early 1800s, bringing with him the practice of
alternative medicine and becoming captive to an erratic nobleman who had
supplied dwarves, hunchbacks from Africa, and magicians to entertain
Catherine the Great. Kirill's investigation takes us through centuries
of turmoil during which none of the German's nine children or their
descendants can escape their adoptive country's cruel fate. Intent on
uncovering buried mysteries, Kirill searches archives and cemeteries
across Europe, while pressing witnesses for keys to understanding. The
Goose Fritz illuminates both personal and political history in a
passion-filled family saga about an often confounding country that has
long fascinated the world.
