Author Paul Goldberg was born in Moscow and emigrated to the U.S. at age 14. An award-winning investigative reporter, he has been widely published, including in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post. The Yid is his debut novel.

And what a novel it is! The setting is Moscow, February 1953, a week before Stalin’s death. A pogrom—”one that will forever rid the motherland of the vermin”—is in full swing. Three government goons arrive in the middle of the night to arrest Solomon Shimonovich Levinson, an actor from the defunct State Jewish Theater. He manages to escape, and the insanely wild ride that will wind up with Sol and his cronies witnessing/supervising/causing the death of Stalin begins.

Amazon writes: “As hilarious as it is moving, as philosophical as it is violent, with echoes of Inglorious Basterds and Seven Samurai, The Yid is a tragicomic masterpiece of historical fiction.

Glen David Gold wrote in his review for the Washington Post:

“The Yid” is darkly playful and generous with quick insights into the vast weirdness of its landscape. And yet, at one point, Goldberg writes, “Our purpose is to describe these events with accuracy, coherent or not.” This is something a reader of historical fiction might argue with, as accuracy is for a different audience. We are most immersed in the past, I think, when we watch someone manipulate it. This might be, ironically, a lesson Stalin taught, too, but it’s still an apt one for readers to consider when engaged with such a fine enterprise as this one.

A quick refresher on the known facts about the death of Stalin is available (thank you Sue) through this article from the Smithsonian.

A longer route to a refreshed memory but one that’s lots of fun is the 2017 film “The Death of Stalin” (actually, a trailer for the film is offered in the aforementioned Smithsonian article). The film is every bit as rambunctious and darkly comic as The Yid, but considerably closer to the historical facts. Rotten Tomatoes has it at 96% favorable, and it’s available to rent from Amazon Prime or iTunes for about $4.00…or you can pick up a copy at the Omaha Public Library for free (they have 8 or 9 copies).

For the more soberly historically minded among us, C-Span has a video of a lecture on the subject of the “Jewish Doctors’ Plot” given by Jonathan Brent, co-author of Stalin’s Last Crime. Brent presents a vivid picture of the murkiness and intrigue in Stalinist Russia which are the background of The Yid, but be forewarned the video lasts nearly an hour and twenty minutes. You can see it here.

Shakespeare’s “King Lear” (or Konig Lir in the novel) is frequently referenced as is GOSET’s most famous actor and director, Solomon Mikhoels. Youtube has a 4-minute clip of the actor in his greatest role. Stick with it until the end—even though it’s not in English, it is quite moving:

Paul Robeson is also mentioned frequently in the novel, and author Paul Goldberg said that one of the things that kept playing through his head as he was writing The Yid was Robeson singing The Song of the Warsaw Resistance. Youtube has that, too: