Newswise — Charlottesville, Va., Oct. 24, 2012 — “Anna Karenina,” directed by Joe Wright and starring Keira Knightley and Jude Law, opens Nov. 16 in U.S. theaters. Andrew Kaufman, an internationally recognized Leo Tolstoy expert who teaches Russian literature at the University of Virginia, is available to comment on Tolstoy and the characters and times about which he wrote.

The author of “Understanding Tolstoy” and co-author of “Russian for Dummies,” Kaufman has discussed Russian literature and culture on national and international television and radio programs. He was a featured expert for Oprah’s Book Club, and is author of “Give ‘War and Peace’ a Chance: Tolstoyan Wisdom for Troubled Times,” to be published next year by Free Press.

Kaufman, who teaches in the U.Va. College of Arts & Sciences’ Slavic Languages and Literatures department and is an affiliate in U.Va.’s Youth-Nex Center, can provide background information about “Anna Karenina” and Tolstoy, and reflect on the timelessness of the social and spiritual questions Tolstoy wrote about: “Can people of diverse backgrounds and perspectives in a fragmented world share a belief in any unifying ideal? What is the role of faith and spirituality in an increasingly advanced society? How can people come together to form deeper bonds? How do you raise a family?”

“These universal questions of humanity and how society navigates a changing world that Tolstoy wrote about over a century ago are the same questions we struggle with today,” Kaufman said.