The Genius of Unrequited Love

This is a parable about a mad love for life, where irony becomes a saving net above the abyss of existence. A novel with no linear plot, but with a sincere truth about how to remain yourself in a world full of tragicomedy.

«A Genius for Unrequited Love» was nominated for the Booker Prize a quarter of a century ago, but did not receive it, because at the time it seemed that there were more important works than this unusual, fun parable about a passion for life. Now we understand that this novel was created for all times: it is about how to live in an absurd and comic world while keeping balance—stepping over the abyss of being and stopping the moment without depriving it of motion and life. The novel is layered and has no single plotline, reflecting the strange nature of life itself, which is continuous and unpredictable: the flicker of text and mind, the blend of irony and seriousness, faith in miracles, and above all the unchanging sense of humor of Marina Moskvina—where humor is not the goal, but a magical prism through which human conflicts appear funny and dramas become surmountable. And so, laughing and crying, the author achieves what even alchemists, in search of the philosopher’s stone, aren’t always able to do. Read and reread Moskvina—she knows something important. But what exactly?