"Inventive, unusual, humorous, ... deeply intelligent, The Commissariat of Enlightenment beautifully illuminates the hazardous powers of image, icon, and relic." – Andrea Barrett
"Brilliant ... Inventive ... Gogol is probably tearing his hair out, wishing he'd dreamed this up." – Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Kalfus is an ironist in the best late-modern Central European style: wry, humane, precise, and beautifully smitten with ideas." – Jonathan Franzen
"Unforgettable...the story exhibits all the vigorous intelligence and vision readers have come to expect from Kalfus." – Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Glitteringly original. . . . An intricate, harrowing, and, yes, dangerous first novel that sets out to capture the dawn of the 20th century in Bolshevik Russia." – Esquire
"Kalfus's book is absorbing, intelligent, witty and wry...A fable that tells the story of the 20th century." – London Times
