The Village on the Oredzh River

…The teenagers Katya and Lena Komarov from a large poor family have a mouthful of worries: while their drunk father and mother quarrel with each other, they need to somehow feed, clothe, and shoe their younger sisters and brothers. The 1998 crisis is looming, but hope for a miracle does not leave the children. After all, where an adult sees nothing but poverty and despair, a child can glimpse a secret… This book is a unique collective portrait of a Russian person, a resident of our vast country. Not a metropolitan, not a "privileged" one, not a "advanced" and "enlightened" individual, but an ordinary, "average" citizen. The very one who inhabits small towns and villages, who goes to work every day to turn the wheel, to swing an ax at a construction site, to sew duvet covers, or to sell groceries at a store counter. In front of the reader's eyes, a multitude of fates will pass, each deserving a separate novel. And those whose lives are just beginning — the little heroines of the book, Katya and Lena Komarov, and those whose lives have long since ended: the completely unique grandmother of a large family at the center of the narrative, or the brawling priest from the local church. In a small village on a river with the mysterious name Oredzh, the whole of Great Russia with its pains and joys, its problems and hopes, its harsh life and unyielding faith in a bright future is reflected like in a drop of water. In this sense, this book is a large collective portrait of that very mysterious, overstrained, lost, at times angry or withdrawn, but at the same time — infinitely gentle, kind, pure, bright, and clear Russian soul. Anait Grigoryan is a prose writer from St. Petersburg. She has several novels to her credit, such as "Octopus", "To Unknown Gods", as well as translations from Japanese like "Train of Killers", "Summer of Evil Spirits Ubumē". Anait's creative style is defined by impeccable mastery of literary imagery, a measured style, the absence of "empty" verbal constructions, and captivating plots. The world of Grigoryan is quite dark, but hope lives in it. And love.