With a Steady Hand

The book offers a unique combination of fiction and memoir-like texts, creating a vivid picture of the recent Soviet past. These works have a rare mix of comfort and wisdom—especially valuable for those who want to understand complex historical events more deeply.

Elena Kholmogorova, born in Moscow in 1952, is a historian, writer, teacher of literary craft, editor, and head of the prose department at the magazine “Znamya.” She is the author of eleven books, including prose and essays.

The book “With Steady Hand” reveals personal aspects of life. It tells about childhood years in an unusual Moscow family, about a poet-father, an artist-grandfather, and a musician-uncle, about friendships and romantic experiences, about books and music, and about impressive meetings and travels. This is a collection of sincere reflections—sometimes joyful, sometimes sad—on what came true and what remained unrealized; about love that endured throughout a lifetime.

Kholmogorova draws inspiration from the Japanese philosophy of kintsugi, where cracks and flaws in ceramics are highlighted with golden lacquer, symbolizing that losses and suffering become an inseparable part of our path—turning them into the art of the golden seam.