A Door Behind A Door

In Yelena Moskovich's spellbinding new novel, A Door Behind a Door, we meet Olga, who immigrates as part of the Soviet diaspora of ’91 to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. There she grows up and meets a girl and falls in love, beginning to believe that she can settle down. But a phone call from a bad man from her past brings to life a haunted childhood in an apartment building in the Soviet Union: an unexplained murder in her block, a supernatural stray dog, and the mystery of her beloved brother Moshe, who lost an eye and later vanished. We get pulled into Olga’s past as she puzzles her way through an underground Midwestern Russian mafia, in pursuit of a string of mathematical stabbings.“A Door Behind a Door is Yelena Moskovich’s third novel, her contribution to a venerable literary tradition of exploring Hell, with its telescoping time and scrambled geography, its thick atmosphere of mystery and violence—you are not off thinking about the world of David Lynch. It is a highly addictive book, unfolding in poetic little bursts that take up and stretch noirish crime fiction, the Russian literary inheritance, and surrealism."
—Michael Schapira, Full Stop Magazine

"Moskovich draws on Clarice Lispector, Sophie Calle, and even Pauline Réage, as she moves around the page, the body, the world."
—Grace Lavery, BOMB Magazine

“Yelena Moskovich’s previous novel, Virtuoso, introduced us to a multinational cast of characters and focused on the trauma experienced by emigrants from the former Soviet bloc as they adjust to life in the west, often at the expense of their closest relationships. Virtuoso makes use of fractured timelines and episodic narrative techniques that are particularly effective in conveying the radical sense of disjuncture at the heart of both the migrant and the queer experience; Moskovich’s skill in using form as an active part of the narrative makes for a memorable reading experience. Her new novel, A Door Behind a Door, is equally successful in evoking alienation… We don’t often see writing like this: genuinely subversive and innovative.”
—Nina Allan, The Guardian

"Wildly dancing from one page to the next, Moskovich’s style not only resembles a play, it also arrests the reader as witness and spectator to Olga’s world being flayed open in much the way we might watch a dramatic scene on a stage. Different sections, some as short as a few words, are told from a plethora of unexpected perspectives (including those of an old dog, a shadow, and a knife). These inventive ways of plunging us into different details achieve a delicate balance of the interiority expected from psychological fiction with general atmospheric chaos."
—Mrittika Ghosh, Cleveland Review of Books

"The content and form of A Door Behind a Door are jarring at times, which is part of the point—nothing as dark, unexpected, and sexy as this should feel like anything other than a fever dream... Those who enjoy experimental forms, thought-provoking material, and a good thrill will delight in this haunting novel."
—Katya Buresh, Los Angeles Review of Books Yelena Moskovich was born in Ukraine (former USSR) and immigrated to Wisconsin with her family as Jewish refugees in 1991. Her plays and performances have been produced in the US, Canada, France, and Sweden. She has also written for Vogue, Frieze, Apartamento, Paris Review, Times Literary Supplement, and Dyke_on Magazine, amongst others. She is the author of The Natashas, Virtuoso, which was longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize, and A Door Behind a Door. She lives in Paris.