In the Booker Prize–winning novel by Mikhail Shishkin, the action takes place in different times and in different countries: this includes Russia during the Civil War, today’s Europe, and even ancient Persia. The fates of the story’s characters intersect, intertwine, and grow into one another; love leads them through life—happy, dramatic, and different. “If love ever existed, nothing can make it nonexistent” is the novel’s central theme, awarded the “National Bestseller” prize.