Kuzya, Mishka, Verochka... and Other Ownerless Children

10 hrs. 31 min.

Romance & Prose

Language Russian

Author Tatyana Gubina

Narrator Leontina Brotskaya

Description

Everyone who, holding their breath, calls a children’s home has their own story: for some, one day—after waking up—they suddenly realize they can’t bear the thought of not helping, that these children have done nothing wrong and have the right to happiness; others take years to come to that decision, and on “X day,” with a trembling hand, they pick up the phone.

The lives of each of these people—future mothers and fathers—change instantly with that first call. Of course, it’s hard. Of course, it’s frightening. Of course, not everyone will pass this “exam.”

Tatiana Gubina’s book is a revelation, the confession of a staff member of a children’s home—the one, across the river, who decides other people’s fates, weighing everything “for” and “against.”

This book fills the soul to the brim with both pain and joy. Behind these surges and withdrawals, you can see a living, nervously beating child’s heart—the one who dreams that someday, beyond the fence of the children’s home, their real life will begin. They will be “reborn” into a completely different family and start all over again—maybe not from a blank slate, but at least from a fresh beginning, from the very first line.