Sonya and Alexandra

What do you think—can you make a salad with twenty ingredients that can bring back the joy of living? Do you believe that an elderly man can be a house spirit, a guardian of a place? Can you imagine that a word accidentally said—gossip spread without any intention—can change an entire life? I believe it.

This novel is about the most important action taking place in our own soul. Thoughts replace the words spoken aloud.

Masha Traub’s personal series without equal! The secret of her success is that she combined the best qualities of journalism and artistic prose, raising her favorite genres of family and psychological fiction to a completely new level. Men and women—betrayed spouses and happy mistresses, unloved children and “bad mothers”—will find in her books answers to questions that torment them. Masha Traub is equally good at irresistibly funny, piercingly lyrical, and unbearably sad. She depicts the most ordinary things in a captivating way and isn’t afraid to open the door into the cozy inner world of her family, trusting her readers with the most intimate.

Masha Traub is a well-known journalist and in-demand prose writer. Stanislav Govorukhin adapted her book “Diary of a First-Grader’s Mom,” and a children’s opera was staged based on her collection “Edible Fairy Tales.” Critics call Traub “Trifonov in a Skirt,” and her books have long and firmly occupied a leading position in popular literature.

“Traub is a genius of the miniature. She knows how to pick out what’s typical from everyday life—and then make it funny.” — Izvestia.

“You can’t let Masha Traub read to her husbands—otherwise they’ll go to that, the better one. You can’t let Masha Traub read to other men’s husbands—otherwise they’ll go to you.” — Forbes.