Raisa Adelson: The Prodigy Who Decoded the Comics

Raisa Adelson is the daughter of Molly (born Manya) and the granddaughter of the nuclear scientist Anna Berkova. She is one of the most intellectually gifted characters in the novel, using her talent in physics and mathematics to unravel the mysteries hidden in the Atomic Anna comic books. More than a brilliant student, Raisa is a young woman shaped by abandonment, trauma, and the weight of a family legacy that spans Soviet laboratories, time‑travel experiments, and the Chernobyl disaster. This analysis examines her role in the story, what drives her, how she changes over time, and how she embodies the novel’s central themes.

Overview

Raisa Adelson is introduced as a teenager living with her grandparents, Yulia and Lazar, in Philadelphia’s Little Russia. Raised by them after her mother Molly’s arrest and her father Viktor’s disappearance, Raisa hides her exceptional mathematical ability, teaching herself from stolen library books. She wins a state math competition at sixteen by decoupling Maxwell’s equations, and later studies astrophysics at the University of Pennsylvania. After receiving a mysterious issue of Atomic Anna that calls for her help, she begins to suspect the comics are more than fiction. Her research into gravitational waves and amplifiers leads her to uncover a declassified Soviet report by her grandmother Anna, confirming the time machine is real. Raisa becomes the key figure who must decode the comics, fix the machine, and help avert the Chernobyl catastrophe.

Plot Role

Raisa acts as the bridge between the novel’s two generations of scientists. While Anna Berkova is the original time‑travel theorist and Molly is the artist who encodes scientific instructions into comics, it is Raisa who synthesises their work. She receives the comic books left by her mother (sometimes delivered through time‑travel), recognises the scientific validity of the amplifier design, and independently develops a theory of the graviton to solve the time machine’s radiation problem.

In the later chapters, Raisa steals a classified Soviet report co‑authored by Anna, partners with her boyfriend Daniel to analyse Chernobyl testimonies, and determines to find her grandmother on Mount Aragats. Her decisions propel the narrative toward its climactic convergence in December 1992. Without Raisa’s insight and courage, the time machine would remain broken and Anna would continue to decay.

Motivations and Traits Shown Through Actions

Brilliance and insecurity: Raisa’s love for mathematics is both a refuge and a source of anxiety. She competes in the math competition to prove herself, but also to distract herself from the strange old woman who appeared in the field. At Penn, she locks her door and avoids socialising, feeling like an outsider because of her Soviet background and her parents’ addiction. Her self‑taught ability to build radios and crack cable boxes shows a practical, hands‑on intelligence.

Loyalty and longing: Despite her anger at Molly for leaving her, Raisa repeatedly searches for connection. She travels to Atlantic City to meet her mother when the release date approaches, carrying both hate and love. She keeps the comic books hidden but cannot throw them away. Her motivation to fix the time machine is partly to save Anna, but also to prove that her family’s story matters and that she belongs in it.

Courage under moral ambiguity: Raisa steals the library report, trespasses on roofs to set up a radio telescope, and later decides to confront the truth about her grandparents’ past—including the possibility that they kidnapped her mother. She does not shy away from hard questions, even when the answers might shatter her view of her family.

Chronological Arc

September 1987 (Chapter 13): Sixteen‑year‑old Raisa wins the state math competition. She and Daniel see a mysterious old woman in a field who talks about waves and Chernobyl. Raisa decides to build a radio telescope to investigate the phenomenon.
1987–1989 (Chapters 16–18): Raisa begins working on the roof of Mr. Kestler’s building. She becomes closer to Daniel—his bar mitzvah, their first kiss, and her attempt to visit Molly in Atlantic City. She learns Daniel’s sister Vera was Anna’s nurse, deepening the connection.
October 1989 (Chapter 22): Raisa starts at Penn. She receives a new Atomic Anna comic on her pillow that calls for her help. After finding a Soviet report by Anna Berkova detailing the exact amplifier, Raisa steals it and becomes convinced the comics are real.
September 1990 (Chapter 23): Raisa is now a confident TA. She theorises that the time machine can be fixed by accounting for gravity—the graviton. Daniel shares Chernobyl witness testimonies that match the “wave” and static they experienced. Raisa discovers Yasha Berlitsky is her grandfather and learns about a possible kidnapping.
November 1992 (Chapters 24–?) : Yasha receives a comic with a date of December 8, 1992, and heads to Mount Aragats. Raisa is positioned to join the convergence, having deciphered the physics and the encoded messages.

Relationships

With Molly (her mother): Raisa’s relationship with Molly is defined by abandonment and a desperate need for understanding. Molly left her with grandparents and never fully explained the comics until later. Raisa oscillates between wanting to hate her mother and loving her. The discovery that Molly has been leaving scientific clues in the art transforms Raisa’s anger into a mission.

With Daniel: Daniel is Raisa’s first love and intellectual partner. He supports her experiments, translates Soviet documents, and helps her connect the dots (e.g., Vera as Anna’s nurse). Their relationship matures from awkward teenage affection to a collaborative decision to seek the truth, even at legal risk.

With Yulia and Lazar (grandparents): Yulia and Lazar raise Raisa with love but also secrecy. They refuse to talk about Anna or the past. Raisa learns through Daniel’s research that Yasha (Anna’s husband) was her biological grandfather, and that Yulia and Lazar may have “kidnapped” Molly. This revelation strains her trust but also fuels her need to know the full story.

With Anna Berkova (grandmother): Raisa never meets Anna in person during the main timeline of her youth, but she engages with her through the comics and the stolen report. She respects Anna’s scientific genius and eventually understands that Anna’s time‑travel decay mirrors Raisa’s own feeling of being worn down by secrets.

Key Decisions and Consequences

Stealing the Soviet report (Chapter 22): Raisa takes a classified paper by Anna from the library. This gives her the exact amplifier schematic that matches the comic, confirming the machine’s reality. It also puts her at risk of legal trouble, but without it she would have no proof.
Building the radio telescope (Chapters 13–16): Raisa uses Mr. Kestler’s dish to study anomalies in the sky, which later forms the basis of her graviton theory. This decision gives her the data to propose a fix for the time machine.
Confronting her grandparents (implied at end of Chapter 23): After learning about the kidnapping, Raisa says she “needs to talk to my grandparents.” This decision opens the possibility of family reconciliation and forces her to reinterpret her entire childhood.
Planning to travel to Mount Aragats: She realises the date December 8, 1992 is critical. Her decision to head toward the cosmic‑ray station sets the stage for the novel’s climax, where she can help Anna and Molly.

Theme and Symbol Connections

Science and responsibility: Raisa embodies the positive potential of scientific inquiry. Unlike Anna, who struggles with guilt over the bomb, Raisa wants to use physics to save lives. Her graviton research is a hopeful counterpoint to the nuclear weaponry that haunts the Berkova family.
Intergenerational trauma: Raisa carries the burden of her mother’s addiction and her grandmother’s secrets. The hidden identity of Yasha and the kidnapping plot illustrate how trauma is passed down through silence. Raisa’s quest for truth is an attempt to break that cycle.
Identity and assimilation: Raisa feels like an outsider at Penn because of her Soviet heritage and her parents’ criminal past. She hides her genius to avoid scrutiny, mirroring the assimilation pressures experienced by Yulia and Lazar in an earlier generation.
Motherhood and sacrifice: Molly’s decision to leave the comics for Raisa, even though it means staying away, is a form of sacrifice. Raisa’s eventual understanding of that sacrifice is central to her emotional arc. The comics themselves become a symbol of maternal love encoded in science and art.

Five Book‑Specific Questions and Answers

Why does Raisa steal the Soviet report instead of borrowing it?
Raisa is desperate to confirm that the amplifier in the Atomic Anna comic is real. She knows the library is closing and fears she will lose access. Her theft reflects the urgency of her mission and her willingness to break rules when knowledge is at stake.
How does Raisa first connect the comic books to actual science?
She notices that the amplifier drawn in the comic matches the one described in Anna Berkova’s declassified Soviet report. This concrete overlap, combined with the date December 8, 1992 appearing in multiple issues, convinces her that her mother and grandmother are communicating through the art.
What role does the old woman in the field (Anna) play in Raisa’s character development?
The encounter sparks Raisa’s obsession with waves and Chernobyl. It pushes her to build the radio telescope and later to believe that time travel is possible. The old woman’s appearance is the first tangible sign that Raisa’s family history is not just a myth.
Why does Raisa feel like an outsider at Penn, and how does she cope?
She fears classmates will judge her for her Soviet background, her parents’ addiction, and her erratic upbringing. She copes by locking her door, avoiding social gatherings, and immersing herself in her research with Professor Stocken. Her friendship with Vito and her relationship with Daniel provide limited social outlets.
What is at stake for Raisa when she decides to help Anna fix the time machine?
She risks her academic career, legal consequences for stealing the report, and a possible confrontation with her grandparents about their past. More deeply, she risks her emotional stability by reopening old wounds about Molly’s abandonment. Success means saving Anna’s life and possibly preventing Chernobyl.