Lenin Lives Next Door: Marriage, Martinis, and Mayhem in Moscow — Jennifer Eremeeva

"You can't make this stuff up." So says American writer, imperial Russia enthusiast, and veteran expatriate, Jennifer Eremeeva, who has lived for the last twenty years in Russia with HRH, her Handsome Russian Husband (occasionally a.k.a. Horrible Russian Husband) and their growing daughter. Luckily for Eremeeva, she didn't need to make up most of the events that inspired this, her first work of fiction. When she (and her alter-ego heroine, coincidentally named Jennifer) quit her job to write full time, she became enthralled with the dingy gray building across the courtyard from her apartment, where, it turned out, Vladimir Lenin's embalmed corpse was routinely freshened up and preserved. The result is Lenin Lives Next Door: Marriage, Martinis, and Mayhem in Moscow. 

    Finalist:  General Fiction

    Finalist:  Humor Fiction

            Finalist:  Culture Fiction