Farewell to Matera

Valentin Grigorievich Rasputin is an outstanding Russian writer, whose works have become classics of Russian literature, one of the brightest and most significant representatives of “village prose”.
“Farewell to Matera” (1976) is a poignant story about the flooding of villages for the sake of the grandiose construction of the Bratsk hydroelectric power station on the banks of the Angara. Among other things, the island of Matera, along with the birch and pine trees, the “swamp with a frog,” along with the village and cemetery, should go to the bottom of the artificial sea. Old people cannot imagine their existence without the island, which has been inhabited for centuries, and it is difficult for them to come to terms with the destruction of their native graves, the huts in which they were born, and the entire habitual way of life, tightly connected with Matera. “So many feelings - about our native land, its eternity. The fullness of nature - and the most lively dialogue, sound, speech, precise words,” wrote Alexander Solzhenitsyn. This edition also includes the story "The Deadline" (1970). In the poignant story of a simple Russian woman, her last days on this earth, such qualities of Valentin Rasputin as “concentrated delving into the essence of things, a sensitive conscience and unobtrusive chastity, so rare these days” (A. Solzhenitsyn) were fully reflected.