Atomic Anna

By: Rachel Barenbaum

Narrated by: Traci Odom, Natalie Naudus, Emily Lawrence, Zachary Johnson

Length: 15 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

“Atomic Anna is a dazzling work of ingenuity and imagination.”―Téa Obreht, National Book Award finalist and New York Times bestselling author of Inland

From the author of A Bend in the Stars, an epic adventure as three generations of women work together and travel through time to prevent the Chernobyl disaster and right the wrongs of their past.

Three brilliant women.

Two life-changing mistakes.

One chance to reset the future.

In 1986, renowned nuclear scientist Anna Berkova is sleeping in her bed in the Soviet Union when Chernobyl’s reactor melts down. It’s the exact moment she tears through time—and it’s an accident. When she opens her eyes, she’s landed in 1992 only to discover Molly, her estranged daughter, shot in the chest. Molly, with her dying breath, begs Anna to go back in time and stop the disaster, to save Molly’s daughter Raisa, and put their family’s future on a better path.

In '60s Philadelphia, Molly is coming of age as an adopted refusenik. Her family is full of secrets and a past they won’t share. She finds solace in comic books, drawing her own series, Atomic Anna, and she’s determined to make it as an artist. When she meets the volatile, charismatic Viktor, their romance sets her life on a very different course.

In the ‘80s, Raisa is a lonely teen and math prodigy, until a quiet, handsome boy moves in across the street and an odd old woman shows up claiming to be her biological grandmother. As Raisa finds new issues of Atomic Anna in unexpected places, she notices each comic challenges her to solve equations leading to one impossible conclusion: time travel. And she finally understands what she has to do.

As these remarkable women work together to prevent the greatest nuclear disaster of the 20th century, they grapple with the power their discoveries hold. Just because you can change the past, does it mean you should?

©2022 Rachel Barenbaum (P)2022 Grand Central Publishing

Nuclear Age Science Fiction

This story combines nuclear science and time travel told within a story of about misunderstood genius and lost love.

I wanted to love this book

The concept of this book got me excited to read it. There were parts I enjoyed but overall it could have been much better.

Hang in there

I had a lot of trouble following the first couple hours of the book but I preserved and was rewarded. She has a lot to set up and bouncing around in time is never easy. This book is well worth your time, money and patience. Enjoy

Wonderful, tense, exciting, and heartfelt!

I loved the interaction of science and relationships between generations of women. Combining that with Soviet-era Russia and the experience of new immigrants to America made an interesting book truly fascinating.

I know it was a fantasy but...

I love time travel books but this seemed too absurd. Especially unbelievable was a 17 year old solving complex scientific problems. The time changes made it difficult to follow as an audible along with the Russian names. Narrator was very good.

Unique story with a little bit of everything

I enjoyed this book very much. It had an interesting story with strong character development and interesting twists,

Bad science YA romance story

The characters are unidimensional and unoriginal. The scientific basis is weak as is the background research on Chernobyl. Great performances made this exasperating book tolerable.