Dear Unknown Friend

[A] surprising and perceptive study…The[se] pairings were often unlikely, but regardless of the gaps, in age or in marital, educational, maternal or career status, a curiosity about life on the other side of the world, combined with a shared grief for loved ones lost in the war and a common desire for a peaceful future, helped spur the bonds between strangers. -- Diane Cole * Wall Street Journal * Peri is a skilful writer with a keen eye for detail and a confident command of her material…in our hyperpolarized political times, this story offers a poignant reminder of the potential inherent in person-to-person communication. -- Kristin Roth-Ey * Times Literary Supplement * Highly readable and engaging…casts a light on this virtually unknown chapter in U.S.-Soviet relations…a worthy read. -- Yelizaveta P. Renfro * Washington Independent Review of Books * Placing us inside the friendships built between Soviet and American women pen pals, Peri’s provocative book shows how their correspondence helped bridge the tense Cold War divide at a time when few personal intimacies slipped through. -- Kate Brown, author of <i>Manual for Survival: A Chernobyl Guide to the Future</i> Impressive and original. Peri shows how women found civil ways to disagree with each other, each speaking to the merits—and sometimes the limitations—of their own systems, but maintaining a spirit of friendship and connection. Given the fractured nature of discourse today, I found this deeply inspiring. -- Julia Mickenberg, author of <i>American Girls in Red Russia: Chasing the Soviet Dream</i> Drawing on an extraordinary collection of letters, Alexis Peri reveals how Soviet and American women formed intimate pen friendships from the Battle of Stalingrad through the death of Stalin—even as relations between their governments drastically deteriorated into a bitter Cold War. Deeply researched, richly contextualized, and written in an engaging style, Dear Unknown Friend is an important contribution to our growing understanding of the roles of women, citizens, and emotions during a superpower conflict that has often been seen as revolving narrowly around male leaders. -- David S. Foglesong, author of <i>The American Mission and the “Evil Empire”: The Crusade for a “Free Russia” since 1881</i> An engaging, crisply written account of how Soviet and American women connected. Analyzing a trove of surprisingly detailed and intimate correspondences, Peri reveals the values, priorities, and dreams of ordinary women living through a time of international political upheaval and domestic social transformation. -- Kathleen E. Smith, author of <i>Moscow 1956: The Silenced Spring</i> At a time of deepening nationalist hatred and division, this beautifully written book reminds us that ordinary people are capable of finding profound commonalities and bridging even the most formidable borders. In her exploration of Soviet-American women's wartime and postwar correspondence, Peri provides us with a moving ‘diplomacy of the heart.’ -- Wendy Z. Goldman, author of <i>Inventing the Enemy: Denunciation and Terror in Stalin's Russia</i>