A vivid family saga spanning a hundred years and five generations of Petersburgers. The cult of intelligence and the rebellion of passions, the mistakes of fathers and children. An engaging family saga and philosophical drama — about complex fates, passion, separation, the tragic blindness of loved ones and their sudden insights, about the price of life and death, about how the past catches up and kills. And at the same time — a hymn to family: to embraces, sentiments, trifles, and mutual love, its only unbreakable foundation. With gentle irony, the author tells about St. Petersburg intelligentsia, the touching care for 'one's circle' and the essential cultural education of children, about love for literature and rejection of rudeness. Quotes: 'Lord, and nothing irritated — neither the reserved seat car with other people's legs sticking out in the aisle and the questionable toilet, nor the collective life on the veranda, where the hard narrow bunks were almost touching, and the only washbasin for everyone hung in the yard, tied to a crooked acacia.' 'True, their bath was very funny, right in the kitchen. The wife washes herself, and you drink tea — romance!' 'At first, Lena was madly happy to chat with him, walk along the Neva, argue about Blok and Lermontov. Petka considered both great poets to be decadents and misanthropes, comparing them to Bagrichsky, Lena disagreed, and they had to kiss all the time so as not to completely quarrel.' '...but it's one thing to come as a miserable tourist from the province, and another — to live! To live as a full-fledged Leningrader, to go to the neighboring grocery store for fresh bread, to complain about the broken curb, to habitually read a book or even doze on a bench in the Summer Garden.' Features: Flap cover with perforation on one flap (tear-off bookmark). The book belongs to modern fiction, suitable as a gift. Recommended for lovers of quality prose and those seeking new names in Russian literature.
Elena Minkina-Taycher is a master of sincere and piercing psychological prose. Nominee for the literary awards 'Russian Booker', 'Yasnaya Polyana', 'National Bestseller', 'New Prose'.
