"The heart of the story is love's translations and mistranslations. Daniel, sincere and obtusely inquiring, is narrator and explicator.  Katya is tricky, changeable and, until the very end, laconic. Yet she is the more visible and affecting. Greenberg displays her through Daniel's misperceptions--brightly, that is, through a dark glass...Greenberg, comic and knowing, has done a rare thing supremely well.  Instead of America asserting itself abroad, this 'abroad' has asserted itself through Katya upon an American."
 

"Leaving Katya is a heartbreakingly good book, a tale of love and loss set against the backdrop of the collapse of the Soviet empire. Greenberg writes as grippingly about the world of geopolitics as he does about the inner turmoil of his characters."
 

"Beyond Greenberg's well-crafted scenes, Leaving Katya stretches beyond made-for-the-movies smoothness by resisting easy turns, by accepting the mutual incomprehension that remains so central to his couple's passionate, even profound, sense of possibility. Some American writers, eager to exploit foreign settings or character for literary prestige, adopt an artificial style common to the culture at hand.  Greenberg never lets Daniel's voice fall victim to that modernist cliche.   Instead, he succeeds in etching the subtle way that character--in Daniel's case, a ritual indecisiveness--can mold an American life as forcefully as it traditionally does a Russian one."
 

"Leaving Katya gets into the mind of a man who is up against a double whammy: fighting to keep his relationship alive while watching his beloved's country fall apart. In a way, the collapse of the Soviet Union works as a metaphor for the relationship between Katya and Daniel, and readers wait to see them bounce back, however slowly, like the fractured republic . . . This is a surprisingly solid first novel, and Greenberg manages to dodge the bullet that would make it a sappy love story. Although some of the ingredients are here -- Russia, a beautiful woman, and a terrible longing when things go wrong -- he stays on track."

"Greenberg limns the immediacy of newly shaky thresholds; urgently, his lovers grope through darkened corners of personal and national identity, sometimes blind even to each other . . . He treads lightly through a political and personal morass, enjoys scene-stealing itinerant characters. But the novel belongs to Daniel and Katya, who teach each other a complex, poignant lesson about love as a kind of assimilation."
 

"The writing in Leaving Katya is rich, funny and forceful.   The characters complex and compelling--their personalities evolve. This is a remarkable book . . ."

"Darkly hilarious . . . This tale will resonate with anyone whose infatuation with an exotic person or place has revealed dissatisfactions that lie a little closer to home."
 

"The best love story of the season."
 

"Leaving Katya is at its heart a story of deep love and impossible marriage. As much about the clash of personalities as the clash of cultures, it achieves its power in exploring the enduring desperation for men and women to know another's deepest self. Against the backdrop of a politically tumultuous time and the grandiose landscapes of Russia and New York, Daniel and Katya's story is a poignant and often humorous example of how romance and loneliness can trade places in an instant."
 

"A melancholy, suspenseful love story, chronicling the relationship between a young American slacker and a beguiling Russian beauty. . . As unpredictable as the era it depicts, Leaving Katya is a tale of a cultural struggle that captures the anxieties of a century's end."
 

"A delightfully witty novel . . . Greenberg keeps a dry-eyed view of his besotted, dewy-eyed American's love for the sexy, exotic and formidable Katya. The dialogue is funny and Greenberg has an excellent ear for Russian-flavored English. But mostly, Greenberg does a beautiful job in portraying the heartache and frustration of two people from mutually exclusive cultural mindsets trying to make a go of marriage." 
 

"Simply put--a very good book."

"Greenberg's portrait of the collision between Russian romanticism and American materialistic fervor rings sharply true . . . The clash between old and new, East and West, is as threatening at the geopolitical level as it is interpersonally, leaving us to wonder how the United States and Russia will fare in the twenty-first century"

"Leaving Katya is a seductively easy and funny read–a book as much about Russian-American interaction as it is about the meaning of love."
 

"A truly engaging first effort from a writer of promise."
 

"Greenberg is an engaging writer and a sharp storyteller, adding to the joy of this entertaining and thoughtful book."
 

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"This debut novel offers insight into life's intimate and difficult relationships; communication and cultural differences contribute to the crumbling of Daniel and Katya's brief marriage, as do their unrealistic expectations of one another. Greenberg writes with clarity, compassion, and humor, and the recent history that forms a backdrop for this tale contributes to its relevance."