The Crisis of Someone Else's Age

Sorrow and joy, hopelessness and hope alternate in the novels, stories, and tales of Masha Traub, who made a brilliant debut in 2007 with the poignant and sincere novel “Gather your things, we are leaving.” After that, she published many more books, hilariously funny and achingly sad. Several of them, such as “Diary of a First Grader's Mother” and “Little House in the South,” were adapted into feature films.
The collection “The Crisis of Someone Else's Age” includes stories about life and death, about miracles, about relatives who never became close, and about strangers who became family. In this touching and honest prose, there is room for irony, subtle observations, and the everyday details in which you recognize your own story.
All the heroes of this collection of stories and sketches are experiencing some kind of crisis. Each copes in their own way - some take a vow of silence, while other characters believe they are fighting their own death in an arm wrestling match. This book contains not only observations of modern life but also stories that could be considered mystical. “I’ll work this trouble out with beans,” my grandmother used to say when she wanted to calm me down. In the village where I grew up, people used beans for divination. And if it’s mysticism, then it is very kind.