Natalia Kurchatova and Ksenia Venglinskaya started writing their book ten years ago when they were still schoolgirls. This is probably why the reality of their novel includes many layers: everyday writing is combined in it with a gloomy dystopia, heartfelt lyrics with social satire.
Natalia Kurchatova and Ksenia Venglinskaya started writing their book ten years ago when they were still schoolgirls. This is probably why the reality of their novel includes many layers: everyday writing is combined in it with a gloomy dystopia, heartfelt lyrics — with social satire. The reliable, recognizable world of St. Petersburg youth with school exams and trendy bars, youthful loves and summer travels on the pages of «Summer …» unfolds to the reader with its unexpected facet. The intelligent twenty-five-year-old idler Danka Voron, a specialist in Old French poetry and a school history teacher, is drafted into the sinister Horse Guards (and in fact, the Black Hundreds) Druzhina. There he will have to see with his own eyes the dark underside of today’s seemingly prosperous and respectable life and, like the heroes of ancient tragedies, face the eternal choice between feeling and duty.