Presumption of Guilt

Anna Babina is a young prose writer, a finalist of the “Lyceum” prize (2022), and winner of the publishing program of the Art Cluster “Tavrida” (2021). Her bibliography is not yet extensive, but it is completely obvious that she is a talented author with her own perspective on the world. The novel “The Presumption of Guilt” is the best proof.

Can you live with the burden of guilt? Constantly torment yourself because, because of you, a loved one died? Grandma Lida lived that way. During the Patriotic War, her sister Zoya was connected with the partisans and was shot by the fascists. Lida was convinced she was to blame—she. Out of stubbornness, she didn’t listen to her sister and did things her own way, and by accident that same choice turned out to have given away Zoya. Grandma Lida spent her entire life with this stone on her neck. It wouldn’t let her live, but she couldn’t drop it.

Over time, she learned to measure everything by Zoya’s scale and to look at everything through Zoya’s eyes—as if she were living not her own life, but Zoya’s.

Granddaughters of Lidia, even though they didn’t know all the truth, seemed to pay for this guilt too—the life of all three was somehow pointless and muddled. If only Grandma Lida had known she had the right to remove this stone from her soul—would her life and the lives of her granddaughters have turned out differently? And can one even talk about that in conditional mood?