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My Grandmother’s Braid is written in a style that seems at turns facetious and tragic; one finds themselves snorting with laughter during the most inappropriate moments. It is a book about complicated characters and families, a book that takes every tragedy seemingly in stride...

— Asymptote Journal, Jan 27 2021

“Anyone struggling with an existential hangover from 2020 will find a certain ‘hair of the dog’ relief in this comic feel-bad novel. Bronsky has a Dickensian flair for writing about miserable

— LitHub, Jan 19 2021

The one thing you can be sure of when reading Alina Bronsky is that she never writes the same novel twice. And that’s probably because her main protagonists are as different as different can be. While Baba Dunja is probably of the same generation as Rosa from The Sharpest...

— Lizzy's Literary Life, May 4 2018

One of the biggest delights of expanding my reading repertoire has been discovering far more interesting female protagonists; discovering women who challenge the societal norms and offer far more than the archaic stereotypical – and often secondary – roles that, with hindsight,...

— Reading Matters, Dec 12 2016

When the reactor happened, I counted myself among those who got off lightly. My children were safe, my husband wasn’t going to live much longer anyway, and my flesh was already toughened. And anyway, I was prepared to die. My work had taught me always to keep that possibility...

— The Writes of Woman, Aug 26 2016

The German Book Office in New York City has chosen Baba Dunja's Last Love by Alina Bronsky, translated by Tim Mohr (Europa Editions, $16, 9781609453336), as its June Pick of the Month. The GBO said: "Baba Dunja has decided to move back to her deserted hometown, Chernobyl--three...

— Shelf Awareness, Jun 20 2016

Sacha, a young Russian girl living in a housing project in Germany, deals with the trauma of immigration by overachieving in school, but finds its consequences extend well beyond the expected alienation and loneliness. This is a powerful novel about how families carry each other...

— Electric Literature, May 4 2016

With quiet understatement, Bronsky offers us a glimpse of life in the radioactive abyss.

— Kirkus Review, Apr 18 2016

Alina Bronsky’s deftly translated novel is a coming-of-age story as well as one of coming to terms with oneself and the world. Our “superhero” is seventeen-year-old Marek, who had been a handsome boy and the much-admired star of his high-school theater group—until he...

— Apr 14 2015

After being disfigured by a Rottweiler and withdrawing from society, Marek finds himself attending a meeting with other similarly-affected individuals. Enamored with the wheelchair-bound Janne, a girl he meets at the meeting, Marek is lured to additional meetings. When the group’s...

— San Francisco Book Review, Mar 27 2015

Just Call Me Superhero by Alina Bronsky, trans. by Tim Mohr (Europa Editions, $16 trade paper, 9781609452292, November 4, 2014) Teenager Marek's face was horribly disfigured in a much-publicized Rottweiler attack. He has joined a support group for young people with physical...

— Oct 27 2014

Russian-born Alina Bronsky made a splash with 2011’s The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine, with praise from sources as varied as The Daily Beast and the Financial Times. She’s back with a third novel, Just Call Me Superhero, serving up more biting wit and a no-frills...

— Oct 4 2014

Bronksy’s biting coming-of-age first novel, Broken Glass Park, was nominated for the Bachmann Prize; the follow-up, The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine, was named a PW Best Book of the Year. In this third novel, a 17-year-old boy badly mauled by a dog joins a support group...

— Aug 11 2014

A German teen learns the importance of friendship, family and forgiveness in Bronsky's third novel (The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine, 2011, etc.). After Marek is attacked by a Rottweiler, his disfigured face isn't the only thing giving pain to the formerly handsome...

— Jul 29 2014