Difficult People: There's Always Some Teenager Around

A candid, astonishingly frank novel by St. Petersburg writer Elena Kolina about what matters most—complicated “mother–daughter” relationships—told from an unexpected perspective: the mother is also a teenager.

How do you love? Mothers are so different: distant “mom at work,” overprotective “helicopter mom—mom is here!”, the controlling mom—“watch me, mom is everywhere!”, the mom-friend—“right, I’m your best friend?”

Each mother–daughter pair has its own sore points, complaints, conflicts, and the unspoken rules like: “I love you if you…,” “Don’t upset me,” “Do you want to be a good girl?” And each mother is torn between “I want” and “I have to,” because she herself once was taught “how it should be.”

As befits good literature, in this story everyone will find something to think about: how we were raised and how we raise our own children, understand why we are the way we are, and why our mothers behaved one way and not another—what to accept and what to change, where to come to, and how to love. The book seems to say: let’s listen, let’s understand, let’s smile—let’s get closer to our mother, family, our own children, and to ourselves!

Listen to the audio version of the new novel by Elena Kolina, read vividly by Anastasia Skorik and Maria Orlova.

Performers: Anastasia Skorik, Maria Orlova

Illustration: Yulia Stotskaya

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