Don't let my baby do rodeo: A Novel - Rilegato

“With Fishman, we are in the hands of a genuine miniaturist, a cultivator of particulars, a writer who knows that familial conflict is the realm of intense feeling packaged in tiny gestures.” (O, the Oprah Magazine)

“Fishman’s novel veers from gently, quasi-comical to broad-stroke satirical to earnestly heartfelt. Along the way, there are plenty of sharp observations about American culture, parenting, and the adoption process...The plains may be flat and barren, but Fishman’s narrative swerves repeatedly in refreshingly unexpected directions...It stretches beyond themes of adaptation to champion the importance of getting in touch with the great wilderness―both in nature and oneself.” (Heller McAlpin, NPR)

“[Fishman’s] second novel is a fresh, unpredictable departure from his first. Max may or may not do rodeo, but from now on expect Boris Fishman to do anything.” (San Francisco Chronicle)

“An eloquent and uncynical tale of how far people must travel to find out what they truly want and who they truly are.” (Chicago Tribune)

“With graceful control and assurance, Fishman turns Don’t Let My Baby Do Rodeo into a layered story of identity and the challenges of weaving our many differences into compassionate bonds...a nuanced, compassionate novel...” (Shelf Awareness)

“...Fishman describes the turmoil of family, parenthood and cultural emotion with urgent, sly detachment. His language has the originality and imagination of someone who comes to English with unexpected thoughts and rhythms in his head, and is, simply, a joy to read.” (Cathleen Schine, New York Times Book Review)

“Readers will be glad that they made the journey with Maya Rubin as she searches the American West in an attempt to find herself. DON’T LET MY BABY DO RODEO is a wonderful and quiet look at the eternal question of what it means to belong.” (Christian Science Monitor)

“Fishman is a writer who uses his words with deftness and precision.... Boris Fishman―even if he can’t quite break free of the meta-fictional Mishkin looking over his shoulder―tries courageously to tell a story that is different. The fact that he largely succeeds, and that he worries, in the text, about the ways in which he doesn’t, are promising developments for Fishman as a novelist, and for Russian-American fiction as a whole.” (Los Angeles Review of Books)

“Touching...a sensitive and surprisingly adventurous exploration of one woman’s wonder and suffering.” (Publishers Weekly)

“Fishman smartly observes that the assimilation novel and road-trip novel make good partners. Both, after all, are about finding freedom. A comic novel about parenting infused with emotional intelligence.” (Kirkus)