Spanish Lessons

Prose about getting out from under parental abuse, a therapeutic read for millennials, and the story of the most ordinary girl who found the courage to be herself and say “no” to the closest people—this is “Spanish Lessons” by Ekaterina Zdanovskaya.

Stasya’s childhood took place in a family where instead of support there were pain and constant tension. But one day she decides to break the familiar circle and start from scratch—in a new, distant, and unfamiliar life that, for the first time, becomes truly hers. A life in which she’ll have to learn to defend boundaries, say “no,” trust people, build relationships without fear, and accept love not “for something,” but simply as it is.

And exactly when her world finally starts to stand on its own foundations, her father—used to thinking of himself as the main and all-powerful—invades her destiny again: he flies across the ocean to “restore order” in the life of his already grown daughter…