On her own, Anna had been working on the puzzle of time travel for decades, ever since she was a young Soviet physicist in the 1930s. Though her time trip was unexpected, Anna is not completely surprised. We’re out of time.” Soon after, Anna is pulled back to 1986 and to her apartment, now holding her amplifier with burned hands. Molly has been shot, and tells Anna “The reaction caused the jump. Inside the building is her grown daughter Molly, whom Anna has not seen since Molly was a baby in the 1950s. 8, 1992, at a science research station on Mount Aragats in Armenia. The massive nuclear reaction causes her to jump through time.Īnna lands a few years in the future, Dec. Here, “opens” seems more fitting than “begins,” because the book’s first page drops you directly into ongoing action.Īt the moment of the Chernobyl explosion and meltdown, the now elderly Anna is in her apartment in nearby Pripyat, holding a small amplifier she has designed to control electro-magnetic waves. “Atomic Anna” opens in April 1986, the night of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. These are all girded with some complex physics, which Barenbaum describes in prose that is as elegant as it is accessible. Their overall tale encompasses an immigrant story and a love story the destructive power of family secrets and the regenerative power of friendship. It is primarily about three women: Anna, an atomic physicist her daughter Molly, a comic book artist and Molly’s daughter Raisa, a math genius.
With “Atomic Anna,” Barenbaum has created a saga that manages to be both sweeping and riveting. Rachel Barenbaum (Courtesy Alberto Paniagua) She also hosts the podcast “Debut Spotlight,” where she interviews authors about their new work. She has multiple degrees from Harvard (in business, literature and philosophy), was a hedge fund manager before she turned to fiction, and has written for publications including the Los Angeles Review of Books and Literary Hub. “ Atomic Anna,” Rachel Barenbaum’s second novel (out now), does time travel right.īarenbaum, who lives in Brookline, does not seem to do anything small. Any event you change, no matter how small, is a domino ready to tap the next event, and the next. There’s the allure of improving history (your own or the world’s), and the inherent tension of unintended consequences.
When fictional time travel is done right - think Jack Finney’s classic “Time and Again,” or Stephen King’s “11/22/63” - it is hard to resist.
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