Malinverno

11 hrs. 8 min.

Romance & Prose

Language Russian

Author Domenico Dara

Narrator Anton Cheskidov

There are places where the words of novels and poems sound from everywhere, and the names of the inhabitants make you think of heroes from world literature. The city of Timpamara became such a place ever since, many years ago, a paper mill was built here. In the 1960s, an unnamed grave is discovered in the city cemetery—its secret is destined to be revealed by the lame librarian and the caretaker of the cemetery, Astolfo Malinverno. Like the medieval monk from Umberto Eco’s novel, Malinverno is captivated by the stories and mysteries of the universe. A lover of books with a vivid imagination, Astolfo mixes plotlines from novels with the fates of the people of Timpamara—both the living and the dead—but what intrigues him most is the faceless tombstone with a photograph of a woman. Over time, he decides to penetrate the mystery of this face. Astolfo calls her Emma Ruо, as in the heroine of Flaubert’s "Madame Bovary." A few months later, he finds a flower in front of Emma’s grave. What does it mean? Flowers keep appearing until, a few weeks later, Astolfo sees a woman leaving another flower— and, to his surprise, she is identical to the image of the mysterious Emma…

Malinverno The Dress (narrated by Yury Krasikov) 0. A Man Without History (narrated by Yaroslav Khoroshkov)