The Book Lover

Can you be happy with a “mama’s boy”? For Sonya and Maxim, they could have had a wonderful family—if not for the mother-in-law, who staged colorful circus performances the moment the son allowed himself any freedom. Sonya endured it for nineteen years, and then decided to become happy without a man who never married her… Who will win? The beloved woman or the mother? And are there winners in families like this?

Excerpt: “You said you like other women,” Sonya stuttered—“forgive me, books!” You called them books. And you had me! I dutifully lay on your shelf for years: beautiful, with pictures—read and admire. But you never even opened me! You touched, sniffed other books in your nasty library: old, rotten, stinking of dirt and decay. And you didn’t even pick me up! You read them in binge mode, and not even once did you wet your finger to turn the page on me. And all you did was talk about—talk about what wonderful… other… books there are…”

Contains profanity.