David Bezmozgis is a maestro of dislocation, a fascinated observer of the in-between. Here he centers on the Krasnansky family, a handful of the many Russian Jews stranded in 1970s Italy, waiting Beckett-like for visas and dreaming of The Free World (Picador, $15). Bezmozgis blends the Krasnanskys’ surreal limbo in Rome with the memories of the lives they left behind. By circling through each family member’s private reveries, we glimpse Soviet history across generations—a view that is both panoramic and incredibly intimate. From hardship in tsarist Russia to the heady idealism of the 1930s to the absurd Orwellian comedy of love affairs in Communist Latvia, Bezmozgis writes with nuance, humor, and a light, graceful touch. Every section feels immediate.