The Starling

Aleksey Birger Borisovich is the son of the famous artist Boris Birger. From childhood he grew up among the “rebellious” creative elite, for whom his father’s workshop was one of the main centers of constant conversation. On a typewriter of his, when he was seven, he was taught to type by Nadezhda Yakovlevna Mandelstam. With special fondness and sorrow, Aleksey Birger remembers Yuli Daniel, who not only supported him at the very beginning of his creative path, but—most importantly—by simply being near him gave invaluable lessons to the young writer.

Now Aleksey Birger avoids the “writerly” circle, trying to maintain more or less steady contact only with Oleg Chukhontsev and Vladimir Voinovich, whom he has known since childhood and whom he has always held in great respect.