Without Mother
Riva Evstifeeva's new book continues the autobiographical series that began with The Internat Stories [cioè? Oppure qui “Boarding School” oppure sopra “Internat” реши] (Éditions Tourgueneff, 2023). Now the center of the narrative is a teenage girl who has escaped from the terrible reality of boarding school. A new, domestic life begins. And the most difficult thing in this new life turns out to be communication with her mother. Mother, a bright and yet difficult person, does not like to talk about the past. And only gradually do the contours of her own story emerge from family photos and stories – a story ordinary in its nightmarishness, as the stories of Soviet women often are.