Guard Your Braid, Varvarushka

“Beware the braid, Varvarushka” is a collection of novellas and short stories set in a settlement on the banks of the river Pinega. Snow, a great river sleeping under ice, a high sky. Regardless of the name of the narrator—Varvarushka, Marfa, or Lyubushka—she is inseparably tied to this place, even if physically she is far away. Here the heroine first learns about her family, her purpose, friendship, love, and loss. The book explores relationships with a place that shaped a person’s character and shows that these relationships can be complicated. In Zaborceva’s Russian North there is a mythological flavor, and life here follows the calendar cycle. Varvarushka searches for her grandfather and the house spirit, Marfa plans to build a home, and an unnamed heroine from “Pinega” sends her father off on his last journey. The author blends elements of fairy-tale tradition with modern realities, creating a text with rhythmic precision that brings to mind both village prose and Sasha Sokolov’s works.

“It’s not just geography. It’s a special way of life, character, ethics, and worldview. Poetics, too, of course. In Varvara Zaborceva’s rhythms you can feel echoes of northern folklore—its laments and spells” (Sergey Batalov).