Where Are You Running?

Chizhik the dog spent his first summer at a cottage with his owner, a girl named Simka. In autumn, the family moves to the city. Chizhik absolutely doesn’t like city life. He decides to return to summer and live there. He runs on the trail. But the trail ends…

Having gotten lost, Chizhik meets a stray dog and, for the first time in his life, fights over food. Still, Chizhik and the Lamplighter (that’s what they call his new friend) quickly find common ground, form a street gang, and live like vagrants: stealing food, chasing drivers and cats, and leading a pack of quarrelsome grandmothers around by the nose. Chizhik becomes a wild street dog—a dog that doesn’t need people. Though sometimes he thinks: maybe people need him?

A new book by Asya Kravchenko (“Hello, Horse!”, “Tales of the Old House”, “Migrant Children”) is, of course, about dogs. But also about people. It’s a story of friendship and growing up. And it’s a fairy tale of a big city—one that children see it as.