Step inside the story – explore a selection of powerful chapters from the books.
A movie about Dad through his music is made —Simon & Garfunkel to Piazzolla, Vertinsky to Zaz. His soundtrack echoes across generations. The daughter reminisces about the music they loved – songs that shaped her taste and funny stories about mispronounced lyrics and kindergarten runaways.
The village church overflows with mourners as the narrator confronts the crushing weight of her father’s absence. This is his legacy: a life spent collecting both rare treasures and fractured souls, now reduced to silent artifacts and unanswered questions. What is now left? His cluttered office, his unfinished plans, and her mother’s clenched fists in an echoing, empty house.
They tiptoe around the word ‘coma,’ draping it in euphemisms. They say: ‘He’s sleeping’ – shared incantation against the unbearable. A mother moves into a small room near the ICU. Her world shrinks to hospital halls and the sound of church bells. Fall turns to winter unnoticed. We know – dad may never wake. Faith remains.
She lingers in grief’s bargaining stage, refusing to believe her father is truly gone. A desperate self-deception: her mind pretending this is just another game of hide-and-seek, that any moment now he’ll reappear with a laugh and open arms.
Dad is playing Hide and Seek Read Post »
Rushing from Canada to Moscow to visit Dad in intensive care — unrecognizable after just a month. Hiding shock behind forced stupid jokes. The storyteller in a spacesuit trying to trick death. Collapsing into a stranger’s arms. The sterile air, skeletal hand, Mom’s silent vigil—none of it feels real. Only the guilt remains: fear of the body that used to be so alive.
A stopover in Istanbul, a walk along cobblestone streets, Turkish cats – heirs of great Constantinople, Dad’s guidance, Turkish coffee causing a terrible headache, humiliation of women, the injustice of the whole world — and it all ended at the police station.
Istanbul, Police Station and cobble streets Read Post »
A simple task—measuring rice and water—spirals into pi-level math, proving how Eastern European instincts to expect the worst can turn even the easiest moments into mini survival drills. J with his Canadian politeness and European charm fixes it all.
Katty cooks wild rice and calculates ¼ Read Post »
New Year feels like a melting snowman losing its buttons. But there’s J to hold everything together and put back the buttons. New Year in Moscow full of family and funny traditions – is dearly missed while living as an immigrant in Canada. New Year here is too quiet. The kids are both adored and maddening. J is becoming a new family now.
1st Day of a New Year Read Post »
What do we all reminisce about on New Year’s Eve? If we focus on the good, then good will happen. Being a manager and building a team that laughs together, hotel stories best left untold, quiet holidays spent with family. Meeting J – who embodies my dad’s patients. And, like Hercules, ready for the labors ahead.
What We Tell Ourselves on New Year’s Eve Read Post »
Just a second date—sitting in his car, facing each other, his beauty lit by the glow of the headlights. He looks like one of Michelangelo’s marble statues—a pure, ideal masculine body, the kind we were shown at school as the standard of perfection. Finally found in real life. The rush of first love, driven by hormones and attraction, will eventually fade. But he has a different idea.
Michelangelo’s David Read Post »
A girl raised as royalty chafes against inherited privilege—both her family’s Soviet-era prestige and the psychological borders they imposed. Between silver tiaras and the allure of escape, she dissects what true sovereignty costs: rebellion or complicity?
The Crown at Soviet Olympics Read Post »
She’s convinced she’s special – a student who came “temporarily” but secretly plans to stay. Yet there are thousands like her. And instead of triumph, she’s met with harsh reality: bureaucracy, job hunting, and a drug-addicted neighbor she has to share a bathroom with.
Gagarin in Canada and the Cocaine Romeo Next Door Read Post »