Two writers, or the keys to the attic

Irina follows the well-trodden path of an ordinary Soviet woman: joyful student days, romance with songs by the campfire, early marriage, a baby, moving... And it is the move from Moscow to Sverdlovsk, which will soon become Yekaterinburg, that alters... her fate. The heroine of the novel finds herself at the center of the local bohemia and becomes immersed in this atmosphere.
The wife of a successful man and the mother of three daughters begins to find new meanings. Irina meets artists and writers, among whom readers will recognize the playwright Nikolai Kolyada and the poet Boris Ryzhy, attends vernissages, reads others' texts, and gradually transforms from a passive observer into an author herself. One day, Irina encounters an unusual character. The local troublemaker, charming and unpredictable writer Chmutov, bursts into her prosperous life and becomes the catalyst for unexpected metamorphoses. Starting with small texts published in the legendary magazine «Ural», Irina begins to work on a novel — complex, multi-layered, written ironically and captivatingly. Not yet knowing that twenty years later this popular genre will be called «autofiction», the heroine weaves events from her own life into the fabric of the artistic text she created herself.
Marina Golubitskaya has written a novel about creativity and love. It is a sincere, ironic, and engaging story that is created according to the laws of melodrama but takes place in realistic settings with real, non-stereotypical characters.