The autobiographical, lyrical, nostalgic book by Leibov, a finalist for the Mark Aldanov Prize, recalls the best examples of Russian prose ‒ from «The Life of Arsenyev» by Ivan Bunin to the works of Alexander Ilichevsky.
The new book by Boris Leibov is devoted to childhood spent in Moscow and the Moscow region, and to adolescence closely linked with emigration ‒ life in Cyprus and France in the late 1990s. Attachment to parents, grandmother, and grandfather, first and, of course, unrequited love, and teenage friendship create a true dramatic knot. From it, a story full of fantasies and harsh realities is woven, depicting the maturation process, the transformation from boy to man.
This book contains a lot of everything. There is an atmospheric snapshot of the era with its dangerous twists of fate. And a loving gaze into life, because for the author, every detail is important: the rustling of grass, the sound of rain, the first winter snowfall... And a poignant nostalgia for what was left in the past. And a cautious interest in the new.
