Sick Heart

“Russian literature has always been distinguished by the fact that talented writers came from medicine. But among them there were no female authors—with their own perspective on colleagues and patients, with their own life philosophy. Now there is Tatyana Solomatina, whose books you can’t let go of until you’ve read the very last page. With a woman’s ruthless honesty, she speaks about medical cynicism, and you realize that this cynicism is a form of self-defense for those who constantly face other people’s pain, blood, and moans—who see life on the edge of death and are responsible for other people’s fates. And yet the doctor, who for patients is a god, lives alongside it an ordinary life—she has children, wives, and an eternal lack of money. Tatyana Solomatina manages, perhaps, the hardest thing in her craft: to show the weakness and strength of gods,” wrote Natalya Nesterova. The book includes three novellas by the writer, who has become one of the main literary discoveries of recent times: “The Constant Variable,” “Sonia’s America,” and “A Sore Heart.”