A Multi-Family Chronicle

A novel consisting of 7 novellas. All its characters live in the same communal apartment. It’s a saga with elements of magical realism, where the fates of several families are woven into a single tapestry of time. On the pages of the book, there’s a whole world where reality sometimes gives way to the strange and the inexplicable.

The novel spans the time from the beginning of the communal apartment’s formation to its eventual dispersal—i.e., from the 1920s to the 1970s of the last century. Through everyday scenes and family dramas, an entire era comes through—recognizable to the point of pain.

The author’s language is vivid, lyrical, almost musical, making the text alive and multi-layered. Here the everyday turns into the mythological, and reality becomes allegory.

The tender world of a person’s soul is revealed with love and humor, transforming the “ordinary” and lifting it to a cosmic height. The book is both funny and sad, like life.

The first edition of the book in Paris in 1980 was awarded the V. Dal Literary Prize. The book was translated into French.