Apples and Snakes

A collection of stories about women in whose experiences you can easily recognize your own life and path—from growing up and separating from family to overcoming doubts and striving for inner freedom. These texts form a layered mosaic of mythological motifs, family plots, and scenes from everyday life. Here, conversations about friendship and motherhood, about shame, and about the “bright” and “dark” side of the human heart sit side by side and intertwine. Extremely candid stories show where our strength and our vulnerability come from: how time, traditions, and surroundings shape a woman’s self-perception—and they remind us that accepting oneself often follows a painful route, yet it is precisely that route which grants a sense of true wholeness.

Maria Nyrkova is a writer, an alumna of the Philology Department of Moscow State University, a resident of the “Peredelkino” House of Creativity, and a nominee for the “Theatre of Arts Prize.” Her autofiction novel “Bay of Patience” (2023) received warm responses from readers and critics, was called a “brilliant debut,” and entered the longlist of the “Yasnaya Polyana” prize in the “Youth” category.

In the audio format, a gallery of women’s voices is rendered subtly and precisely by actresses Alexandra Ursulyak, Anastasia Dyachuk, Marina Lisovets, and the author herself. Attention: the recording includes profanity.

Illustration: Lyusya Solovyova. Design: Elizaveta Korsakova. Maria Nyrkova, 2025. Published with support from literary agent Galina Bocharova. The recording was made by the audio publisher VIMBO. Producers: Vadim Bukh, Mikhail Litvakov.