Wait, I'll Die and Come Back (collection)

Anna Matveyeva is the author of novels “The Dyatlov Pass, or the Mystery of Nine,” “The Enviable Feeling of Vera Stenina,” and “There Is!”; short-story collections “Nine Nineties,” “Lolotta and Other Parisian Stories,” “City Dwellers,” and “Hidden Rivers.” A finalist of the “The Big Book” and “National Bestseller” awards.

The characters in Anna Matveyeva’s stories persistently search for their time and place. An eleven-graders’ student teacher in love with her pupil dreams of England. The boy hopes that his parents will be together again, and that instead of the invented lake on stage, the real one will return—and with it, their former life. A girl who has quietly grown up now regrets what didn’t happen in the past. An old maid is still waiting for her impossible future. The wife of an unsuccessful writer is misled by dreams of a literary Parnassus, while he sees himself young among old friends.

“After all, there’s nothing more frightening than discovering your place in time.” Nothing less frightening than knowing it—yet being unable to find it.