Hotel The Big L

From the first to the last page, this book is steeped in love and endless freedom. “Hotel Big L” is a modern fairy‑tale comedy of situations for teenagers and adults, and it would make an excellent musical. Kosa is 13; he has three sisters—two older and one younger—and he has no idea how to deal with them. He’s also great at football, deeply in love with Isabelle, and his father ends up in the hospital—so Kosa and his sisters must keep their family hotel afloat. A chain of curious, completely unexpected, and silly situations will naturally bring the characters to a happy ending. Here, love grows and blossoms on the most inappropriate ground, gives the heroes’ lives meaning, and reminds us that the heart is not a muscle pumping blood, but a voice that sings.

“In this book you’ll read what happened to me in May. It really did happen—I didn’t make anything up. Well, I did lie, left and right, and that’s also true. I lied that my dad served the king; that I have delayed growth; that my sisters ended up in jail; that while Dad was sick, a temporary manager replaced him; that I always have sex before a football match; that our hotel houses psychos; and that I’m a girl. I even was a monkey. With a fruit basket on my head. If you could die from an abundance of imagination, I would’ve died a long time ago.”

The novel by Dutch writer Shurd Kuyper, published in 2015, won the Silver Griffel award, sold 30,000 copies in its home country, was translated into eight languages, and was adapted into a film in 2017.

“Hotel Big L” is the reel‑to‑reel diary of the main character Kosa, and it was voiced by theatre and studio actor Pavel Yakovlev. Comments from Kosa’s beloved were voiced by Tamara Bleyotkina.