A Drop of Perfume in an Open Wound

The first novel by the famous Russian journalist Katya Kachur in a new authorial edition.

In the music school of N-town, the violinist Slavochka and the pianist Asya were prophesied to have a great future. They were talented, daring, and… in love with each other. But the boy's domineering mother did everything so that they would never play a duet in this life.

Slavochka becomes a global sensation, the Russian Paganini, and Asya becomes a well-known television presenter and perfume connoisseur. However, for their resounding success, both pay with emotional emptiness and loneliness.

They push each other away only to inevitably meet again. And each meeting ends for Slavochka in unbearable pain: the violinist's fingers hurt monstrously. Is this the price for betrayal or a family curse? One way or another, for Maestro Yaroslav Krechet, the girl from his musical childhood remains that unplayed melody. Will the heroes manage to rewrite the score of their lives while the metronome counts down the last beats?