The Gambler Wife Book Cover
Reviews

  • New York Times Book Review
    “Recounts Anna’s agony in scenes as gut-wrenching as any we might encounter in her husband’s novels.” –New York Times Book Review

  • Russian Life – Book Review

  • The Times Literary Supplement

  • Publishers Weekly 
    “With colorful details…Kaufman successfully corrects biographical accounts that have ‘erased’ Snitkina’s flair. Highly readable, this page-turning narrative will appeal to Dostoyevsky fans and literature-lovers in general.” –Publishers Weekly

  • Kirkus Reviews 
    “A fresh look at a spirited woman who played a significant role in literary history…. A deeply researched, informative literary biography.” –Kirkus Reviews

  • “Wake-Up Call” newsletter (Katie Couric)
    “The must-read, real-life tale of the woman who saved his [Dostoyevsky’s] career.” – “Wake-Up Call” / Katie Couric Newsletter

  • PEN America – Announcement “Literary Awards Longlists”

“The Gambler Wife is the story of an intriguing, impressive woman who has too long been treated as a footnote in her husband’s story. Kaufman’s rendering captures the significant effect Anna Snitkina had not only on Dostoyevsky, her husband, but on literary Russia. Feminism, history, literature, politics––this tale has all of that, and a heroine worthy of her own turn in the spotlight." –Therese Anne Fowler, bestselling author of Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald

“Dostoevsky called her 'the little diamond,' and Anna Snitkina was just that—at once brilliant and entrancing, yet rock-hard and indestructible. With her fierce intelligence and ambition, she was far more important, not only to the success of the great writer but to the literary life of Russia, than has previously been known. Andrew D. Kaufman’s captivating book restores Anna to her rightful place and opens a window onto a dizzyingly complex relationship that helped to give us some of the world’s greatest novels.” —Douglas Smith, author of The Russian Job and Rasputin

“With access to recently discovered sources, rich historical context, and deep psychological insight, Andrew Kaufman reveals Anna Dostoyevskaya as not only Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s wife but also his editor and inspiration, critic and enabler—an innovative publisher, pioneering feminist, and every bit as much a gambler as her husband. And The Gambler Wife, while rigorously grounded in the sources, itself reads like a Dostoevsky novel.” — William Mills Todd III, Professor of Literature Emeritus, Harvard University

“A riveting tale—a true literary love story that defies and compels the imagination at once, brilliantly told by Andrew Kaufman . . . A fine and formidable book.” —Jay Parini, author of Borges and Me and Empire of Self: A Life of Gore Vidal

“With enlightening research and engaging prose, The Gambler Wife recounts the improbable and profoundly influential relationship that lay at the heart of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s literary enterprise: his marriage to Anna Snitkina. Hers is an inspiring, unexpectedly modern story of partnership, ambition, and achievement, and Andrew Kaufman tells it brilliantly.”—Caroline Weber, author of Proust’s Duchess