Sophia Petrovna. Descent Underwater. Dash

Lidia Chukovskaya (1907–1996) — prose writer, poet, publicist, literary critic, memoirist. Author of the books “Notes on Anna Akhmatova”, “In the Editor's Laboratory”, “"The Past and Thoughts" by Herzen”, “In Memory of Childhood”, “On This Side of Death” and others.
This... edition includes three cherished books by Lidia Chukovskaya.
Two — fictional and one — documentary. The very fact that the first of them was written on the border of 1939 and 1940 seems like a true miracle.
These novellas seem to "grow" one from another and "sprout" into each other: before us is a sort of box with a triple bottom, a high and tragic triptych, a symphony of classical prose. Rereading "Sophia Petrovna", "Descent Underwater" and the unfinished "Dash", — I cannot help but think about what unique writer-dialogue partner an otherwise indifferent reader might find.
Pavel Kryuchkov,
literary critic,
staff member of the Korney Chukovsky House-Museum in Peredelkino - department of the State Museum of the History of Russian Literature named after V.I. Dal