["The Thaw"] served as the emblem for the period immediately following Stalin's death. Though it was no literary masterpiece, it was avidly read by thousands and thousands because it mirrored their hopes for a milder political climate after a quarter-century of oppression….

"The Spring" [is] a sequel to "The Thaw," and now both novels—actually two parts of one narrative—are presented to American readers in a … volume entitled "A Change of Season."…

What made "The Thaw" so exciting when it first appeared was that it coincided with a new phase in the life of the Soviet people and also with the opening of a new chapter of their literature. A talented journalist with a flair for changing moods and ideas, Ehrenburg registered the psychological and political temperature of his contemporaries at a crucial moment in their history. And he understood that the time had come for a...