Contents
On the threshold of autumn. We have selected four book novelties that will not let sad thoughts about the passing summer spoil your mood.
Crisis
“This too shall pass” by Milena Busquets
A book about hardship is rarely upbeat or uplifting. As a rule, good bereavement novels bring comfort and leave a timid hope that life will someday smile. Spaniard Milena Busquets goes beyond the usual. Her heroine, forty-year-old Blanca, after the death of her mother feels completely lost: no strength, no desire to do something. Blanca is crushed and doesn’t care. So she would have been lying in bed, drawing the curtains, but everyone around is advised to go to the sea, unwind – and she decides. She takes her sons and girlfriends with her and goes to the southern town of Cadaques, where her mother lived and where her own youth passed.
A hospitable home, wine, delicious food, sea salt on the skin and mother’s ability to enjoy life – all this was an inseparable part of the summer months for Blanca. And now she’s trying to remember what it’s like to accept life with a smile. For Blanca, as well as for Milena Busquets herself, who wrote the book after the death of her mother, these memories of a serene vacation become painful, but the only sure way to confront death.
She allows herself the sea, the sun, friendly gatherings and sensual flirting. She allows summer in Cadaques to be the same as it has always been in this house – after all, isn’t that what her mother, with whom Blanca still has endless internal dialogues, wished for her? Critics called Milena Busquets’ novel “a literary tsunami”, and she herself was called “the new Francoise Sagan”.
“This, too, shall pass” is a sincere, healing story about how to overcome the bitterness of loss and feel the taste of life again. It catches, no matter how old you are and whether your parents are still alive. Because all of us, one way or another, have to go through the pain of separation, the inability to finish or finish … but this too will pass.
Milena Busquets, 46, is an archaeologist, journalist, and author of two books. This book is her debut novel, written in 2005.
Translation from Spanish by Nadezhda Mechtaeva. Sinbad, 192 p., 459 rubles.
Опыт
“What happiness!” edited by Maya Kucherskaya
In different voices, in different manners, the best modern authors talk about the most intimate. There are no obvious reasons for delight in their stories, like the engagement of lovers or meeting with a newborn son, no, these short stories are thinner and deeper. They are about the realization of a fateful decision, about the silence of a peaceful frosty morning, about the warm breath of a beloved dog … about the happiness of being alive. Alexander Genis, Narine Abgaryan, Evgeny Vodolazkin, Marina Stepnova, Marina Moskvina talk about moments that they remember all their lives – and then their heart aches, then their cheeks hurt from a broad, as in youth, smile. Wipe away tears, take a breath – turn the page and think: “What happiness!”
Edited by Elena Shubina, 429 p., 349 rubles.
Transformation
“Britt-Marie Was Here” door Fredrik Backman
Swedish writer Fredrik Backman is amazing at bringing out the best in people. He made him understand and love the irritable bore Uwe, who turned out to have a heart of gold (Uwe’s second life). And the harmful “old pepper” Britt-Marie, the character of the novel, Grandmother ordered to bow, even dedicated a separate book. At 63, Britt-Marie has to admit the obvious: the husband to whom she gave her life has been cheating on her for a long time. Britt-Marie puts the house in order and … leaves for another city to become the coach of a football team. A non-trivial story about an age that no longer promises anything, but is valuable for that: it allows you to forget what people will say and understand what you are capable of.
Translation from Swedish by Elena Teplyashina. Sinbad, 416 p., 444 rubles.
Three reasons to read “The Perfect Nanny” by Leila Slimani
1. See reality in 3D
When Paul and Miriam’s second child is born, the woman feels herself start to choke. She reminisces about her aborted lawyer career, and the couple decides to find a nanny. Drama Slimani is based on real events in 2012, when a nanny in an American family killed the kids entrusted to her. And we live the tragic denouement on the very first pages, but what preceded it is more important for Slimani. She turned a terrible story into a deep artistic analysis of complex human relationships.
2. Face your fears
Forty-year-old Louise is just a godsend: she loves to play with children and cooks fabulously … Paul and Miriam notice too late that they have become dependent on their ideal nanny … While Miriam is trying to balance between career and motherhood, Louise is less and less ready to put up with the fact that life in this family will never be her own. The two women slowly become a reflection of each other’s fears and aspirations. Their actions are woven into a tight ball of mutual envy, jealousy and hostility.
3. Live multiple lives
Leila Slimani subtly, gradually draws the reader into the novel. Masterfully weaving dialogues, retellings and internal monologues of the characters, she achieves an incredible effect. The reader, without noticing it, becomes each of the three characters in turn, including Louise. Knowing perfectly well about the monstrous deed of the nanny, with each page, to his own horror, he understands her better.
Translated from French by Alexandra Finogenova. Sinbad, 224 p., 469 rubles.