Rebinder Effect

Lев's grandmother rushes back from France to Russia, cutting off all ties with relatives and never mentioning her husband. Kira's family hides photographs of her aunt from prying eyes, while Nadezhda doesn't speak of her priest father even to her children. Behind all this are dekulakization, exiles, medical affairs, and, strangely enough, love, which turns out to be more terrible than war and death. The novel becomes more than just a family saga, as it encompasses the history of several families united by ties of marriage, infidelities, and the tragedies of the 20th century.