Starting Over

Sergey Parkhomenko has again broken the rules—he smashed the established boundaries of genres and combined a cookbook with travel notes, philosophical reflections, diary entries, social pamphlets, and—well, who knows what else. It turned out impeccable.

The audiobook contains 56 essays: about the past, the present, and in some sense about the future—about interesting people, unusual encounters, and unexpected incidents. And of course, about food. In short, just like always with Parkhomenko—about life in all its forms. For example, the turkey saцivi with a deep nutty aroma, which the author was generously treated to in Pitsunda with loud toasts in honor of Bella Akhmadulina and Boris Messerer at the neighboring table, paradoxically ties the hot summer of 1975 to the beginning of the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict. Varenyky with cherries will bring together the dacha near Peredelkino, John le Carré, and Sean Connery, and the story about the first fishing trip of his life continues with reflections on male vanity, the magic power of great literature, and fish soup with sturgeon—(уха) …