Interview: Yelena Akhtiorskaya, author of Panic in a Suitcase
Nat Bernstein: What was the impetus behind Panic in a Suitcase? What inspired the novel, and what pushed you to write it?
Yelena Akhtiorskaya: The impetus for Panic in a Suitcase was really just the vague but potent need to write that is always present, always nagging, like a feral beast-child that will bite off your arm if you don’t keep throwing things at it. The only thing I happened to have on hand was “my experience.” I wish I could’ve given it something tastier and more satisfying, but it was an emergency situation and the most important thing is that I saved myself—for now.
Read full interview at the Jewish Book Council
About the book:
Debut author Yelena Akhtiorskaya delivers her first book with the nuance and craft of a seasoned novelist. There is a poise to Panic in a Suitcase that underlies the book’s most humorous and most honest moments, in which a cast of altogether human characters interact with one another under the resentment, frustration, and poorly expressed love of family. Exposing the stresses of separation and the banality of long-awaited reunions,Panic in a Suitcase is a deft immigrant narrative exploring the individual experience of those who leave, those who stay, and those who attempt to return.
The book at Amazon and on Kindle
