The Girl from the City

The stories «The Girl from the City» and «The Swans» — are among the most famous by Lyubov Voronkova. Their action takes place in the author's beloved village, featuring her favorite characters — the village children. The girl Valentina, however, is from the city, but due to circumstances, she also becomes a rural resident. She, having lost her mother and little brother in a bombing and fleeing from the war, is taken in by the village family of Darya Shalikhina. Darya had three kids — now there are four… The grief from losing her own mother has not yet been wept out, and the word «mom» directed at the woman who took her «as a daughter» constantly gets stuck in Valentina's throat… But spring will come, and the child's heart will thaw. Valentina will pick snowdrops in the forest (just a small bouquet, let the others bloom, they are much more beautiful in the forest!), will offer Darya a handful of fresh blue flowers and say: «I brought this for you… mom!»
The story «The Girl from the City» was written by Lyubov Voronkova in the wartime of 1943, and the story «The Swans» — twenty-three years later. The artist Vladimir Galdyaev illustrated both works in 1990, when the writer was no longer alive. But there is a persistent feeling that both the text and the illustrations were created at the same time and that the writer and the artist had many discussions. The book turned out to be exceptionally cohesive.