My Children

«My Children» — the second novel by Guzel Yakhina, the brightest debutante in the history of contemporary Russian literature, laureate of the «Big Book» and «Yasnaya Polyana» awards for the bestseller «Zuleikha Opens Her Eyes».

«In her first novel, which quickly gained fame and, a year after its debut, was already living in thirty translations and at the top of world literary awards, Guzel Yakhina threw us into Siberia while showing the Tatar culture in herself, in Russia, and, we can say, in all of us. And now she immerses the reader in the cold waters of the Volga, in the wet moss and peat, in the ripples and slime, in Ethel-Bulgu-Su, and her “popular thought”, like the Volga, is deep, and it probes the Germanic in herself, in Russia, and, we can say, in all of us. The plot is generally centered on love, death, history, politics, war, and creativity...»
Elena Kostiukovich

The Volga region, 1920s-1930s. Jakob Bach – a Russian German, a teacher in the Gnadentahl colony. He long ago turned away from the world, raising his only daughter Ancha in a secluded homestead and writing magical tales that marvelously and tragically come to life.

«I wanted to tell about the world of the German Volga – bright, unique, alive – about a world once created by newcomers in a foreign land, and today lost in the past. But it is also a story about how great love gives rise to fears in our hearts and at the same time helps to overcome them»
Guzel Yakhina