A Door Behind A Door

“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