“Lichtman’s light touch is a welcome reminder of the humor and wit that, as he points out in a preface written after Russia’s invasion last year, pervades Ukrainian culture even now.” –New York Times

 

“[A] biting comedy.” –Vanity Fair

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“This is a dry-humored and self-aware book, and it’s precisely because the author isn’t a try-hard that modern, prewar Ukraine is allowed to come alive in its pages in its ramshackle, intoxicating glory.” –Natalia Antonova, Foreign Policy

 

“A slyly cerebral work…with a complete mastery of tone…A playful, incisive, and deeply human novel of cultural and personal disconnect that should appeal to fans of Ben Lerner’s Leaving the Atocha Station and Lauren Oyler’s Fake Accounts.” –Library Journal (Starred Review) 

“A stylish and often surprising American-expatriate novel for the not-quite-post-colonial age—and a portrait of Ukraine in the run-up to Russia’s 2022 assault... Perhaps most impressive is Lichtman's high-wire act of tone... A sometimes rollicking, sometimes tragedy-tinged novel about a not-so-innocent abroad.” –Kirkus (Starred Review)

 

“No good deed goes unpunished in this madcap dark comedy... Lichtman delivers a perfect send-up of the American abroad... This is devilish and energizing.”  –Publishers Weekly

 

“Sardonic, twisty.” –Booklist

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“Calling Ukraine is the funniest tragedy I've ever read, or maybe the saddest comedy.” – Garth Greenwell, author of Cleanness and What Belongs to You

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“A book full of unexpected laughter, strangeness and delight, plus one of the most demented workplace tragicomedies ever written.” -Gary Shteyngart, author of Our Country Friends

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Praise for Such Good Work

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“Lichtman [is] a remarkable thinker and social satirist…Such Good Work introduces a writer who is willing to openly contradict himself, to stand corrected, to honor both men and women, to ask sincere questions and let them ring unanswered...Anja [is] one of the more autonomous, intelligent and unpredictable female characters to grace a male novelist’s debut." –New York Times

“Such Good Work is, indeed, a bit Jonas-like: it's wary of affectation or grandstanding; it works small, as if from a sense of modesty, a reluctance to presume; it cuts sincerity with the direst of humor...[It is] alive to the contradictions between morality and comfort that exist everywhere under global structures of capitalism and politics.” –The New Yorker 

 

"[Lichtman] has written a likeable, funny and thoughtful book with an endearingly frustrating central character. Without appearing to try too hard, Such Good Work gets to the heart of what it means to have a conscience and attempts—however futile that attempt may be—to use it for the greater good...Rather like the solitary characters in Go, Went, Gone, Jenny Erpenbeck’s novel about Germany’s refugee crisis, and Leaving the Atocha Station, Ben Lerner’s tale of a disaffected young American living in Madrid around the time of the terrorist attack in 2004, Jonas reflects, regrets and moves on." –The Economist

“The international refugee crisis and the struggle to stay sober preoccupy roughly equal portions of this thoughtful first novel, which follows an American graduate student to Sweden in the fraught years 2014-15...[It] casts a sharp eye over the Swedish social and political landscape...Lichtman's low-key treatment of two highly charged subjects is refreshing.” –Kirkus

“[An] excellent and timely debut ... Throughout, Lichtman expertly infuses his multicontinental narrative with humor and humanity, suggesting the dangers of intolerance while also poking fun at the white savior trope. Jonas may be helping others to make himself feel whole, yet his heartfelt actions stick with the reader in this winning novel.” –Publishers Weekly

“The novel answers its primary question, Is doing good even possible?, with significant emotional honesty, and Lichtman's clear and accessible writing allows readers to explore its complex topics at many levels.” –Booklist​