Red Cross

Sasha Filipenko immediately had his reader - after the success of "The Former Son" and two subsequent novels. "Hounding", published as "The Banner" before the book's release, became in 2016 the most popular text of all Russian literary magazines, according to the electronic portal "Journal Room". This means that his reader understands what to expect from "Red Cross". He will not be deceived: the novel contains a shocking story of a young hero, barely plausible; a plot that is tightly wound like a spring; a cinematic crossing of times; and a paradoxical resolution. But there is also news: all this characteristic Sasha's "fiction" is utterly overshadowed by the documentary material he obtained and introduced into the novel - the history of contacts between the Soviet People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs and the International Red Cross during the war. Sasha Filipenko is a master of creating mood through associative montage. In introducing "Red Cross" to readers, let's use his technique and quote Joseph Brodsky: "From love come children. / You are now alone in the world. / Do you remember the song that, it used to be, / I hummed in the dark? / This is a cat, this is a mouse. / This is a camp, this is a tower. / This is a time that quietly / kills mom and dad."