A Year of Life. Roads We Choose

18 hrs. 29 min.

Romance & Prose

Language Russian

Author Alexander Chakovsky

Narrator Larisa Yurova

Description

The hallmarks of Alexander Chakovsky’s novella “A Year of Life” are the grand tone of the present day, the recreation of the creative spirit of our era, and a sharp presentation of moral and ethical issues.

The author tells about Soviet people mobilizing all their strength to carry out the historical decisions of the 20th and 21st Congresses of the CPSU.

The main hero of the work is a young tunnel engineer, Andrey Arefyev, who wins the reader over with his firmness, principle, and critical—sometimes even picky—attitude toward his own actions. In the image of Andrey Arefyev—energetic, determined, brave, relentless in achieving his goal—are embodied the best traits of our contemporary.

The novella is written in the form of notes by a young engineer, which allows the author to convey the drama of arising situations with particular emotional immediacy. Exposing the careerist Kramov, the struggle for a new technical solution to a construction problem, and deep personal feelings caused by the collapse of faith in a loved one—all of this the author weaves into a tense, engaging plot…

The novel “The Roads We Choose” is a modern book. Its events take place during a period of great changes in the life of our society, a time of powerful creative transformations. The heroes of the novel—party committee secretary Baulin, Arefyev, Agafonov, the geologist Irina Voloshina, and others—wholeheartedly accept the historical decisions of the 20th Party Congress and, day to day in their work and lives, put them into practice. These are whole people, principled in everything—in work, in everyday life, in love and friendship. With psychological truthfulness, the writer reveals Arefyev’s relationships with Svetlana, Irina, and Orlov. Through a struggle with himself, through wavering and suffering, Andrey moves toward a great truth of feeling; he strives to find his own path in life and with Svetlana. The young heroes of the novel choose faithful, honest ways.