Littell, Robert, (Legends: A Novel of Dissimulation) [hc, Overlook Press, 2005] 978-1585676965 [pb, Penguin Books, 2006] 978-0143037033 [The protagonist, Martin Odum, operates in a “largely Jewish world” ranging from Crown Heights to Israel and Prague, encountering post-Soviet gangsters and bioterrorism plots. Odum’s quest involves recovering Torah scrolls lost during the Holocaust. Odum is a CIA field agent turned private detective, struggling his way through a labyrinth of past identities - “legends” in CIA parlance. Is he suffering from multiple personality disorder, brainwashing, or simply exhaustion? Can Odum trust the CIA psychiatrist? Or Stella Kastner, a young Russian woman who engages him to find her brother-in-law so he can give her sister a divorce. As Odum redeploys his dormant tradecraft skills to solve Stella’s case, he travels the globe battling mortal danger and psychological disorientation. – Amazon]
United States · Fiction author
Robert Littell
Robert Littell (born 1935, Brooklyn, NY, resident in France, original family name was “Litzky” which his father changed legally, a fact he discusses in his book, “Bronshtein in the Bronx”) – master of the espionage genre, author of 24 standalone books, most dealing with the CIA, the Soviet Union and the Cold War. Before becoming a novelist, he was a journalist and foreign correspondent for Newsweek from 1965 to 1970, specializing in Soviet affairs. Jewish themes and characters feature in a number of his books, as follows:
Littell, Robert, (Vicious Circle: A Novel of Complicity [hc, Overlook Press, 2006] 978-1585679263 [pb, Penguin Books, 2007] 978-0143112662 [Explores the complex relationship between a kidnapped ultra-Orthodox rabbi (Isaac Apfelbaum ) and his Muslim captor (Dr. Ishmael al-Shaath), finding shared moral ground in their mutual fundamentalism. The Palestinian demands the release of several Palestinian prisoners in exchange for his prisoner. As a Mossad strike team closes in and with a peace treaty at stake, al-Saath and Apfelbaum find themselves building an extraordinary relationship and parallels between these two battle-hardened partisans become the bonds that could lead to reconciliation. Is there any chance, or has the vicious circle already been closed? - Amazon]
Littell, Robert, (The Revolutionist [hc, Bantam, 1988] 978-0553052602 [pb, Penguin Books, 2009] 978-0143116554 [This follows Alexander (Zander) Til, a Russian-Jewish immigrant radicalized by the tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, who is recruited by Leon Trotsky during Trotsky’s brief exile in New York. Trotsky bankrolls their return to Russia to participate in the burgeoning Bolshevik movement. Upon arriving in Petrograd on the eve of the October Revolution, Til is swept into the struggle to oust the provisional government. The narrative spans approximately 36 years (1917–1953), following Til’s journey from a starry-eyed idealist to a witness of the revolution’s brutal devolution. The story leads to a shattering personal confrontation with Stalin, taking Til from the storming of the Winter Palace to the horrors of the Gulag. Unlike Littell’s standard Cold War spy thrillers, this work is often described as a more ambitious, “moral” exploration of how revolutionary ideals can be corrupted by those in power. – Amazon & NY Times]
Littell, Robert, (Comrade Koba [hc, Harry N. Abrams, 2020] 978-1419748325 [pb, Harry N. Abrams, 2022] 978-1419748332 [Features a young Jewish boy, Leon Rozental, whose mother is arrested during the Stalinist “Doctors’ Plot,” where Jewish doctors were falsely accused of a criminal conspiracy to poison Soviet leaders. In hiding from the NKVD (the KGB’s predecessor), Leon by chance meets Koba, a high-ranking Soviet officer with troubling insight into the thoughts and machinations of Comrade Stalin. Through encounters between a naive boy and a paranoid tyrant, Littell creates in Koba a nuanced portrayal of the Soviet dictator, showing his human side and his simultaneous total disregard for and ignorance of the suffering he inflicted on the Russian people. The charm and spontaneity of young Leon make him an irresistible character—and not unlike Holden Caulfield, whom he admits to identifying with—caught in the spider’s web of the story woven by this enigmatic old man.- Amazon]
Littell, Robert, (A Plague on Both Your Houses: A Novel in the Shadow of the Russian Mafia) [hc, Blackstone Publishing, 2024] 979-8212227711 [pb, Blackstone Publishing, 2024] 979-8212638357 – [a gritty, “Shakespearean” thriller that recasts Romeo and Juliet within the violent power vacuum of post-Soviet Russia. The setting is the chaotic period following Mikhail Gorbachev’s resignation in December, 1991, and the collapse of stable government, followed by the jockeying for power of various political and criminal elements. Littell imagines a brutal turf battle for control of the Moscow protection industry between an Ossetian crime clan and a Jewish Mafia, the latter led by Naum Caplan. Blatant anti-Semitism and racial stereotypes are on full display, as Caplan’s daughter becomes romantically involved with the rival gang’s leader, in a Russian Mafia reimagining of the classic story of “star-crossed lovers”. – Amazon & Google/AI]
Peres, Shimon & Robert Littell, For the Future of Israel [hc, Johns Hopkins UP, 1998] 978-0801859281 [This account of five lengthy conversations between Littell and Peres in 1996-97 provides a platform for the exposition of Peres’ visionary views on the Oslo Peace Process, Rabin and Arafat, and Israel’s future hopes and prospects in the region.]
Littell, Robert, (Bronshtein in the Bronx [hc, Soho Press, 2025] 978-1641296861 [pb, Soho Press, 2026] 978-1641297431 [a fictionalized account of the ten weeks Leon Trotsky (born Lev Bronshtein) spent in New York City in early 1917. Arriving in January 1917 after a decade on the run, Bronshtein settles in the Bronx with his family while awaiting the revolution in Russia. The novel follows his immersion into the city’s vibrant socialist scene, where he writes for Russian-language newspapers and engages in fiery debates at local watering holes, encountering historical figures such as Eugene Debs, Emma Goldman and Abraham Cahan.
A central feature is Trotsky’s ongoing dialogue/debate with his personified conscience, whom he names ”Leon Litzky” (the name of |Littell’s father). This subconscious antagonist serves as a foil, challenging his revolutionary ideology and the morality of the violence he plans to unleash. The story concludes as news of the February Revolution reaches New York, prompting Trotsky and his family to race back to Russia. The novel is described as a “mordantly funny” meditation on the price of progress and the struggle to maintain a personal conscience while pursuing a global worker’s revolution. Littell’s Trotsky displays no interest in Jewish affairs and plenty of contempt for American non-revolutionary socialists, but is glad to accept a financial contribution from a Jewish industrialist to cover his fare back to Russia - Penguin/Random House]