The Choice of Water

The heroine of the novel "The Choice of Water," Kira, is from the generation of 35-year-old escapists, fleeing from the past, from reality, and from themselves, traveling from country to country — just to avoid returning home. The Atlantic Ocean in Lisbon and the Pacific Ocean in Vladivostok, the Grand Canal of Venice and the fjords of Norway, the Baltic Sea in Latvia and the North Sea in Holland, the rivers of Germany, England, Spain — Kira has traveled through 24 countries with a backpack on her back, full of bones of animals, fish, and birds. …But no water has accepted them. In yet another attempt to perform the ritual and give the bones to the water — at Lake Bohinj in Slovenia — Kira, walking around the lake in a circle, unravels the consequences of childhood trauma, continues to argue with her father, whose death she has never been able to accept, reevaluates the events of her past life, and follows the traces of her lineage, which grew up on the Volga. "This book is an anthology of water. There are so many lakes, rivers, and seas. This book is about what wakes you before dawn. Sound? Text? Destiny? This book is about how there is always someone following you. 'If I had collected all the gnawed bones into a bag since childhood, I wouldn’t be able to carry it on my shoulders — a whole herd of fish, beasts, and birds.' Your personal herd — of sins, of love, of the small days of life — follows you. This book is about how light shakes off sound. About how white is a frozen green. About how life is inevitable." Dmitry Vodennikov