The Goat Hurries to the Forest

A small Bashkir town, the end of the 90s. Lesya, nicknamed Tatar girl, studies at a food school, writes a novel about a lady-in-waiting and palace intrigues, and can’t stop reading Balzac. She hides from reality in books, where her mother is in prison, her father is absent, and her two grandmothers—Lyuska and Khayatka—would gladly put a curse on each other. But trying to see book plots in ordinary life, Lesya—against her will—gets pulled into a dangerous story… “The Goat Rushes Into the Forest” is a touching, funny, and painfully recognizable story about a childhood that didn’t happen—one that fans of Ian McEwan’s novel “Atonement” and the series “The Word of a Lad” will surely enjoy.