A Lady with a Biography

The heroines of Kсения Велембовская are right alongside us, among ordinary people. Her prose is crafted in such a way that the reader is drawn along the same path as the characters: everything feels alive, recognizable—like it happened not only to them, but to us as well. The plots seem everyday—and that is precisely why they’re so gripping: these circumstances are familiar to many, and imagining yourself in someone else’s fate here is as easy as pie.

Lyusya—the novel’s main heroine—is beautiful, well-groomed, with aristocratic manners, but her personal life seems to have bypassed her. She has an elderly mother to care for, a daughter-actress at the start of her career who needs attention, as well as an awkward son-in-law and his mother. Plus, there’s the house, the garden, and work—everything rests on Lyusya.

Once, in her youth, she had a dizzying romance with a charming actor—he is the father of her daughter. But that feeling belongs to the past; in the present, there are worries, responsibility, and the habit of placing duty above her own desires.

And yet, for every person, there comes a chance—at some point—to turn life in another direction. The only question is whether there will be enough resolve to take advantage of that opportunity.