Light Mountains

Dina is just starting school, just getting a new family, just getting acquainted with adults. Everything in her life happens for the first time—both good and bad. The good: friends, toys, Grandma’s stories, and a wonderful conifer forest in the Light Mountains. The bad: misunderstandings between her parents; and worst of all—Dina is to blame.

The story “Light Mountains” is filled with memorable images of living, not invented, heroes: anyone who remembers childhood will recognize in them their own grandfathers and grandmothers, their mom’s friends, or older neighborhood boys. They are all, even those who aren’t related and even those who aren’t friendly—like one big family, because “in a small town everyone has someone who is ‘godfather’—or brother-in-law, or kin.”

Dina hasn’t learned the words “godfather” and “in-law” yet, but she is starting to feel sisterly emotions toward others. And, most importantly, she is learning to understand what people around her are going through: it turns out that adults aren’t so decisive and all-knowing—and, what’s more, they’re not so ideal… A native of Ust-Katav, a town in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Tamara Mikheeva lovingly describes both the nature of these places and the people of the Ural backcountry.

Listen to the book that earned the author a commemorative award from the International Sergey Mikhalkov Contest and the All-Russian Pavel Bazhov Prize. Tamara Mikheeva is also a laureate of the National Prize “Cherished Dream” and the holder of several other literary awards.