"Stunningly lyric . . . a work of richly empathetic imagination that reminds us once again of how powerful historical fiction can be in skilled hands."
-Los Angeles Times

"Superb . . . an emotional epic bearing echoes of Melville and Ondaatje, conveying scents and shimmers of a vanished world under the skin of our own."
-Jonathan Lethem, author of You Don't Love Me Yet

"Extraordinary . . . a novel that animates the past this vibrantly should make volumes of mere history blush."
-The Washington Post Book World

"Sprawling, cinematic, exquisitely detailed, exactingly researched, and keenly felt . . . a powerful work of excavation that achieves what historical fiction often can't-credibility, along with a sense of the transportive."
-Boston Phoenix

"Riveting . . . Behrens turns the archetypal immigrant's journey into Homeric epic."
-The Providence Journal

"A beautifully written, poetically inspired tale of heroism, love, yes and sex, and the triumph of the human spirit."
-Malachy McCourt, author of A Monk Swimming