David Bezmozgis published Natasha and Other Stories as his debut story collection. This story follows the family of the Bermans, who are Russian Jews, as they flee from Riga to Toronto. It highlights the struggles that immigrants experience as they strive to seek a better life.
The novel is told from Mark Berman's eyes, who starts as an innocent 6-year-old struggling in a foreign place. He learns life lessons from playing with a neighbor's dog, which ends in a tragedy. However, the title comes from a teenage Mark who meets his cousin, Natasha, also an immigrant from Russia, whom he falls in love with. Mark has to deal with much controversy, such as an Odessan cab driver who dies. This book shows the life of an immigrant as he experiences new, unknown things, both good and bad.
David Bezmogis is not only an author but also a filmmaker. Many of the works have appeared in the New Yorker, Harper's, and Best American Short Stories. He was born in Riga, Latvia, but has moved to Canada and now lives in Toronto. This book has won the Toronto Book Award, the Globe and Mail Best Book of the Year, the Winner of the Canadian Jewish Book Award, and the Commonwealth Writer's Prize for First Book.
