“A superbly written tale of intrigue, contemporary history, mystery and illicit international trade….Literary, cerebral, elegant, almost every sentence perfect.”—Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

“The House of Widows is a dazzling novel, rich with fascinating characters, whose search for love and truth carries them from country to country, uncovering terrible secrets, and in the course of their journey revealing much about the history of the last half-century.”—Howard Zinn

"Melnyczuk is a writer of great power, lyricism, and assurance, and he has created a large cast of compellingly complex characters, as well as vivid portraits of London, Vienna, and Ukraine. Hard to put down and harder to forget."—Booklist, starred review

“Brisk, lyrical writing and a winning narrator make The House of Widows irresistible. A son’s quest to understand his father’s suicide, and so to excavate a family history extinguished by the exigencies of the new world, make it exceptional.”—Jhumpa Lahiri

“Melnyczuk’s ambitious third novel is a soulful noir about the damaging effects of history on one man’s psyche.”—Publishers Weekly

“In its brooding focus on the breakup of a corrupt old world infecting the one that succeeds it, Melnyczuk’s hallucinatory tale achieves some of the fierce, distracting power of D.H. Lawrence’s nerve-grating masterpiece Women in Love.”—Kirkus

“Askold Melnyczuk’s The House of Widows is a bewitching maze of storytelling that takes its postwar American hero on journeys to and through Europe to discover the secrets of earlier generations of his family. In so doing he comes across the would-be secret places of recent and contemporary European history—the betrayals, the uprootings, the iniquities, the cover-ups that seem to be demanded if individuals or organizations are to survive. But there is also, at moments, the ‘light of a flickering candle’ by which we can read and be heartened by the images that play on the wall of our cave. A mind-expanding book.”—Nicholas Mosley

“The House of Widows is Askold Melnyczuk’s masterwork. It is a compelling story of fathers and sons and family ties in general, brimming with adventure, international intrigue, mystery, true historical events, and memorable characters from all walks of life. A novel of great scope and great wisdom, The House of Widows shows how, even in the presence of the worst atrocities imaginable, human beings are still capable of hope and love. Written in the tradition of Tolstoy, Dickens, and Hemingway, The House of Widows represents serious contemporary fiction at its best. I hope it reaches tens of thousands of readers, in America and far beyond.”—Howard Frank Mosher

“A soulful noir about the damaging effects of history on one man’s psyche.” —Publishers Weekly 

Praise for Ambassador of the Dead.

"Artistic gold...Melnyczuk is an able analyst of character and a superb storyteller. That he is also a stylist who bids English speak with a bold new accent makes his readers all the more grateful."—Dan Cryer, Newsday

"Proustian...luminous and haunting"—Publisher's Weekly

"A novel so precise and understated it's stunning.""
—Emily Robichaud, Esquire

Praise for What is Told.

"Brilliantly Melnyczuk skips across decades and continents, crom lyric passage to course account, from domestic scene to philosophical musing. His blend of myth and realism - punctuated with violence and comedy - recalls Garcia Marquez."—Boston Globe

"To fall in love with his voice is no trouble at all."
—New York Times Book Review